Howard Edward Butt Sr.

At 95 years old, Howard Edward Butt Sr. physical status not available right now. We will update Howard Edward Butt Sr.'s height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Howard Edward Butt Sr. (April 9, 1895 to March 12, 1991) was an American businessman and CEO of the H-E-B grocery store chain, which was established by his mother, Florence Thornton Butt, in 1905.

Early life

Howard Butt, the youngest of the three sons of Charles Butt, a Memphis pharmacist, and Florence Thornton Butt. Due to his father's tuberculosis, the family moved to Kerrville, Texas, where they opened a small grocery store below their apartment in 1905. Howard worked in high school and then moved to California, where he grew grapes. He returned to Texas in 1919 to once more run the family store after serving in the Navy during World War I.

Personal life

They had four children:

Butt was a lay minister in the Southern Baptist Church.

Source

Career

He converted the store from the traditional "credit-and-delivery" style to "cash-and-carry" style and expanded the product range from basic groceries to personal care items in 1922. His first attempt at growth, which involved the opening of a food store in Kerrville and three satellite stores in nearby towns, went bankrupt. He tried again and opened a second store in Del Rio, Texas, 150 miles to the southwest along the Rio Grande in 1926. He borrowed $38,000 in 1928, realizing that he needed to expand to areas with higher populations. Some 300 miles south of the Mexican border, he acquired three more stores in the Rio Grande Valley. His new tactic paid off, and the company's headquarters were moved to Harlingen, Texas, where he opened a distribution center and established the Harlingen Cannery, which packed Texas-manufactured products. Corpus Christi (1931), Austin (1938), and San Antonio (1943).

He changed the company's name to H.E. in 1935. Butt Grocery. He moved the corporation's headquarters to Corpus Christi, where he had opened a central bakery four years earlier. In 1946, he shortened the company's name to H-E-B. H-E-B's first store in Corpus Christi opened in 1952, with the inclusion of a new shopping center model in which a customer could buy meat, fish, produce, baked goods, and personal care products under a single roof. Butt gradually passed over the company to his two sons. Howard E. Butt Jr., his eldest son, resigned from the presidency to become a minister, and his second son Charles Butt took over the leadership role in 1971. Howard Edward Butt Sr. served as chairman until 1991, when he died at the age of 95.

Source