2017 Annual Members’ Business Meeting

PCC’s Annual Members’ Business Meeting took place on June 13, 2017. Julianne Lamsek, 2016 – 2017 Board Chair, and Cate Hardy, CEO, spoke about the state of the Co-op, followed by member Q & A. There was also time for members to meet and mingle with the board, leadership team, and election candidates. Julianne Lamsek and Carol Binder, whose board terms ended in June of this year, were thanked for their years of service to PCC.

 

Board Chair Remarks

Your board has been focused on ensuring PCC meets the needs of our community by remaining on a path of sustainable growth while upholding the shared values of our membership. The board’s commitment to PCC’s economic success and social and environmental responsibilities – otherwise known as PCC’s triple bottom line – has continued to move our co-op forward as a strong, values-driven business. We believe PCC’s success comes from its loyal members, customers, employees, vendors and community partners who together support and elevate these shared values.

During 2016, PCC’s total sales increased to $277 million and member equity grew by 16% to $55 million. Also during 2016, PCC opened its eleventh store — in Bothell.

Your board continued its support of the PCC Farmland Trust which continues to be a major recipient of contributions; and PCC donated more than $200,000 to local schools and community organizations that PCC members have chosen to support.

These accomplishments speak favorably to the hard work of PCC’s staff, to our collective commitment to co-op values and to the loyalty you have demonstrated through your patronage and involvement in our co-op.

We are grateful for the overwhelming support from members in approving PCC’s refreshed Bylaws. In addition to helping ensure our co-op remains on a path towards a healthy future, the new Bylaws are making PCC more accountable to members in its commitment to environmental and social responsibilities through the delivery of a new, annual cooperative purposes report. You can expect to see the 2016 cooperative purposes report later this year, so please do keep an eye out for that.

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank CEO Cate Hardy, the rest of PCC’s management team and staff for the work that’s taking place in our co-op.

There is someone in particular I would like recognize on the management team who is retiring from PCC after more than 40 years of service to our co-op. This person’s leadership and commitment to our co-op have been integral in PCC’s evolution from a small grocery operation to the thriving business it is today. This person has worked closely with the PCC board over the years and he served as PCC’s interim CEO during 2014. His style is one that is humble yet he has a reputation of being a rock star – not only to those with whom he has worked but also to those in the grocery co-op community around the country. That person is Randy Lee. Randy, will you please stand so we can recognize you?

I would like to acknowledge fellow trustees on PCC’s board for their contributions and leadership:
Carol Binder, Tania DePue, Michael Hutchings, Maggie Lucas, Elin Smith, Alice Cho Snyder, Sandy Voit, Catherine Walker, and Bruce Williams.

I would like to recognize in particular Carol Binder’s service on the board for the past 9 years. Carol will be stepping off the board this month. During Carol’s tenure, she has been chair of the Finance Committee and she served two years as board chair. Carol, will you please stand so we can recognize you?

I would also like to thank the Nominating Committee for their service during the past year: Jason Filippini, Janet Hietter, Mary Simon, Sara Walsh and Sandy Voit – thank you.

Your continued support of our co-op ensures PCC is positioned for future success, both in providing you with high quality, healthful food and service and also in creating a foundation of community service and involvement. I sincerely thank you for your support in 2016 and for continuing your role in PCC’s success.

 

CEO Remarks

Thank you, Julianne. Please join me in recognizing and thanking Julianne for her nine years of service on PCC’s board, including three years as board chair.

I’d also like to introduce PCC’s leadership team, the strongest management team I have ever had the privilege to work with.

Thank you all for coming to PCC’s 2017 annual meeting. This meeting is an expression of PCC’s co-op values come to life. It celebrates our democratic process, ensures all voices are heard, and celebrates our community ownership and independence.

It’s also a chance for us to reflect on the health of our co-op, and share some highlights from the past year.

As you all know, as a co-op, PCC operates on a triple bottom line. We value economic, social, and environmental results and impact. This focus informs every decision we make for the co-op and for our members. Where other food markets might be concerned about their stock prices or return on investment, at PCC we mark our success by the health of our business, our communities, and the environment.

In this regard, I’m happy to share that 2016 was a successful year for our co-op, and I’d like to share a few highlights from each of our bottom lines.

In 2016, the co-op’s sales reached $277 million. Sales grew by 10% over 2015. And, we returned 12% of PCC’s earnings back to the communities we serve.

We also gave $4.8 million back to our members in the form of the monthly 10% member benefit and our 5% member days on the 15th and 16th of each month.

Among other highlights:
  • We opened a new store in Bothell, creating around 100 new jobs, providing opportunities for staff advancement across our co-op, and increasing impact for our farmers, producers, and ranchers, in support of our social and environmental bottom lines.
  • We took steps to raise the bar on our product standards in health and body care. The rigorous review process resulted in the identification of 550 ingredients that we no longer accept in the products we sell and, possibly, set the highest standards in the nation for health and beauty items.
  • We donated over 120,000 pounds of food worth $150,000 to local food banks through your donations and your support at food packaging parties.
  • We challenged ourselves to find ways to minimize our water use by installing sub-meters on critical store systems to better monitor our usage. As a result, we implemented changes that will reduce water use across all our stores by 8% every year.
  • And, we were named Whole Foods Magazine’s 2016 retailer of the year for, as the magazine wrote: “successfully striking that balance between running a business and representing the values of our co-op members.”

It’s those values and our commitment to PCC’s triple bottom line that allows our co-op to thrive and grow. Each year, we create more opportunity for our staff, have greater impact in our communities, and better support our farmers, ranchers and producers. All of these things allow us to make greater strides toward our social and environmental bottom lines, and ultimately, to deliver on our mission to create a cooperative, sustainable environment in which the natural and organic supply chains thrive.

Thank you for your support of PCC. Now, I look forward to answering your questions.

 

Contact the board

Email us at board@pccmarkets.com. Postal mail should go to the Co-op Office.