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Robert Graybill, President, FMS Solutions
Robert Graybill, CPA, joined FMS in 2000, and has over 20 years of experience in the retail grocery industry. Currently, Mr. Graybill leads the FMS operations team in meeting their goal of helping retailers to succeed through benchmarking, best practices, and decision support.
Robert Graybill, C.P.A., joined Financial Management Solutions, Inc. (FMS) in 2000 with over 20 years of experience in the retail grocery industry. FMS provides benchmarking, decision support and best practices to over 2,300 stores across the United States and the Caribbean. Currently, Mr. Graybill works with retailers around the country, helping them to interpret their financial results and transform them into operational plans for improvement.
Mr. Graybill spent nine years working with A&P, where he served as director of pricing, group accounting manager, inventory control manager and store operations. Prior to joining A&P, he worked for a local independent grocer in the Baltimore market. He has authored FMI's Annual Financial Review for the past four years and served as a speaker at the NGA Financial Symposiums. He has also served as a speaker at NGA's annual conferences, FMI's International Food Show and various state association food shows. Mr. Graybill holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Baltimore and an M.B.A. from the Executive Program at Loyola College of Maryland. He currently serves on the accounting advisory board at the University of Baltimore.
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Title: 2010 Independent Grocers Survey
Author: FMS Solutions, National Grocers Assoication
The 2010 FMS/NGA Independent Grocers Survey results are in! Retailers weathered the last year netting a 1.68 percent net profit before taxes. While this was down from a 1.88 percent profit for last year's respondents, it was a solid showing considering the current economic environment. Retailers were faced with a value based shopper and stronger than ever price competition. While the averages were strong considering the economic environment, the top 25 percent of performers reported an impressive 4.10 percent net profit before taxes.
The decline from last year's profits is mainly attributable to reduced gross margins. Last year's total gross margins for respondents were 26.94 percent with the 2010 survey reporting a 26.28 percent. Retailers made up some of these losses with reduced expenses in categories such as supplies, labor & benefits, and advertising.
According to Robert Graybill, President of FMS, "Independent retailers showed just how agile and skilled their companies are by performing so strongly in the height of the recession. While the profit numbers dropped 20 basis points, it is amazing to see their ability to compete against the big box retailers with such a price sensitive consumer base."
Some underlying concerns that survey respondents shared was the lack of ability to obtain capital for improvements and growth. Forty-one percent of respondents were impacted by the lack of available capital through 2009. In addition, 12 percent of respondents plan to layoff in the 2010 year with only 13 percent of respondents feeling as if the government stimulus helped speed the recovery.
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