Content area
Full text
Some years ago, Giant Eagle was very aggressive about technology spending. Then, like many companies, it focused on getting through the Y2K transition. Now it takes a more measured approach, concentrating on areas where technology can add real value.
Adding value means "supporting the organization's objectives: to take out cost and become the best food retailer in the world," said Robert P. Garrity, the chain's senior vice president, information services, who has led its 200-person IT department for the past two years and has been with the company for six. SN spoke to Garrity at his office in Giant Eagle's sprawling Pittsburgh headquarters.
Garrity's department is both supporting and driving the growth of the $4.4 billion, privately held company with 213 stores, including 124 corporate locations and 89 independently owned stores that are licensed to use the Giant Eagle name. "We want to be a catalyst for a new Giant Eagle," he said.
Giant Eagle, which started in 1931, with roots as far back as 1918, hopes to see its business soar in a way befitting its moniker. As it ventures beyond its core market areas of western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio and northern West Virginia, the chain plans to double its sales to $9 billion over the next five years, said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David Shapira.
And IT will play no small role in that growth, if Garrity has his way. Indeed, he is providing the kind of leadership that IT executives should find instructive as they convene this week at the Food Marketing Institute's IT Leadership Forum in Bal Harbour, Fla.
Garrity's basic strategy is for IT to be a business partner for the chain. The IT department, he said, "is not here for the technology. We have the perspective of a retailer, so we need to know the strategy of the business and seek alignment with it."
A good example of that is how IT supports the company's strategy to run departments like pharmacy and video as though they were individual businesses that compete against best-of-class operators in those categories. To support that philosophy, Garrity noted, the finance department is able to use the PeopleSoft application to generate profit/loss statements for each business line separately. "We want business leaders to...