BusinessReport.com

POSITION: Co-owners

COMPANY: LeBlanc Food Stores [formerly Payless Supermarkets]

WHAT THEY DO: Sell groceries

REVENUE: $83 million

NEXT GOAL: With the opening of the eighth store this summer, they are targeting $100 million in annual sales; they also hope to add locations.

As fourth-generation grocers, Randy LeBlanc says it was easy for him and his brother, Marcy, to stay in the family business.

An eighth LeBlanc’s Food Stores location will open in Walker by early July, demonstrating the company’s growth. The store will bring at least 60 full- and part-time jobs to the community.

“People gotta eat,” LeBlanc says. “We deal in a product that people have to have, not want to have. When there’s a downturn, people have a tendency to gather more around the home and family, and in south Louisiana the meal is a big part of that.”

It’s a family business that’s come full circle.

Fifteen years ago, LeBlanc says he wasn’t sure they’d stay in business as Wal-Mart entered small-town America, but he says those fears eased when it became apparent the competition was a “price retailer.” To counter, he says they successfully “shined up” and applied the same market basics as their father and great grandfather: quality products, competitive prices and customer service.

“We dug in and adapted,” LeBlanc says. “We almost consider ourselves an independent chain, but at our heart we’re an independent adjusting to each area we serve.”

Their No. 1 market challenge is finding personnel willing to work. “We don’t work real hard,” he says. “We just work often.” And they’re coping with the business-wide issue of ballooning inflationary costs and competition.

But LeBlanc also considers Louisiana’s joy of living a definite market advantage.

“We are unique. Our love of good cooking is such an integral part of the socialization of Louisianans,” he says. “You can’t have a gathering without someone cooking something, and we do our best to have what they’re looking to cook.”

As they contemplate stepping up their stores in ways such as adding a sushi chef or offering new local products, the brothers also are thinking about bringing the fifth generation of LeBlancs into the business. Randy’s two daughters and Marcy’s three sons all are anticipating the move, taking them a long way from the family’s first stores in Smoke Bend and Gonzales, where the chain is based today.

“Passing the torch is definitely in the foreseeable future,” LeBlanc says. “The idea of going to a fifth generation is kind of off the charts and exciting for us.”