Kansas City, Kansas-based Balls Food Stores (BFS) – The Shelby Report of the Midwest’s 2025 Retailer of the Year – is embarking on an ambitious new chapter, marked by employee ownership, a strategic growth initiative and deep commitment to its teammates.
The independent grocer, which operates 25 stores under the Hen House, Price Chopper, Sun Fresh and Payless banners, recently celebrated 102 years in business. It remains steadfast in its philosophy: “Our teammates come first. Our customers come second.”
“Being an independent operator, we can react very quickly to our guests’ needs and wants, and we don’t have a real large bureaucracy that we have to go through to change, to be nimble and quick,” said David Ball, president of Balls Food Stores and third-generation family member.
“We can make decisions very quickly in our company, so that gives us a competitive advantage over larger competitors.”
Transitioning to employee ownership
In a move underscoring its teammate-centric philosophy, BFS has transitioned to a Teammate Stock Ownership Plan (TSOP), a decision years in the making. The transition was influenced by Ball’s family history and the company’s long-standing culture of valuing its teammates.
Ball shared a story that when his grandfather, Sidney Ball, passed, his wishes were to divide his estate into four equal shares. Ball and his two older sisters each received one fourth. The BFS teammates received the remaining fourth in their 401(k) accounts.
“That just gives you an example of what kind of family-owned, teammate-centric company we are. We’re a faith-based company, too,” he said.
Ball said when his parents’ health started declining, he and his sisters looked at a couple of different ways to purchase the company from them. He said the family had always been “intrigued with the ESOP model.”
The company recently decided to transition to a TSOP “because we’re such a teammate-centric company. It just really felt right, like the right time to do it.”
The TSOP took effect retroactively to Jan. 1, 2024, following a company-wide announcement on June 25, 2024. To celebrate, BFS closed its stores early and hosted a company-wide party, where 2,200 of its 2,400 teammates gathered to mark the milestone, along with celebrating the company’s 100th anniversary.
“I said we’re going to have a party. We’re going to pay everybody to party,” Ball said. “We rented a convention center. We closed our stores at 5 o’clock on a Tuesday and had all our teammates come from 6-9. We played games, we gave away TVs, other gifts. We also gave away a car to one of our teammates.”
He noted that an internal team has been selected to work on communicating the benefits of the TSOP both to teammates and customers.
“We want our teammates to feel like owners – because they are owners. We want them to take care of our guests,” Ball said. “I always tell our teammates that our top customers spend around $15,000-$20,000 a year with us … that’s a big deal.
“Our customers sign our paychecks, but it’s really our teammates treating them with respect and appreciation.”
While the full impact of the TSOP will unfold over time, Ball emphasized its potential to change lives. “We expect it to change our teammates’ lives, their quality of life, and totally enhance it for the better.”
[RELATED: Balls Food Stores Transfers Ownership To Employees]
BFS 2030: Blueprint for growth
Alongside the TSOP, BFS has launched “Project BFS 2030,” a strategic roadmap aimed at doubling the company’s size in five years.
Ball said the inspiration for the project came from being a third-generation grocer and growing up in the business. He started at the tender age of 6, gathering cardboard to burn in the incinerator.
His next job was in the bottle room, then “shagging” grocery carts in the parking lots before becoming a cashier around age 12. As he grew up, he worked in all departments, eventually becoming a store manager and then moving into the support office.
Ball said as the company is ready to go into the fourth generation, he felt the need to tell its story, write it down and prepare leadership for the future.
Leadership talked to teammates in the stores and support office, along with customers, and looked at what other retailers are doing.
“We came up with a little over 40 initiatives, along with looking at our current state and the future. We have 2,400 teammates working for us, so we’ve got 2,400 brains that we can tap into … and utilize that brain power to help us run our business. That’s what this BFS 2030 project is all about.”
The initiatives are structured around four key pillars: operations, growth, people and culture. Four initiatives were launched in 2024: IT Roadmap, Private Label Initiative, Talent Management and Communication.
“We want to 2X our company by 2030 and become a company driven by excellence in retail best practices, talent management, streamlined operations and a strategic approach towards growth,” Ball said, sharing the company’s vision statement.
“We aim to elevate our brands and operations and truly live our vision of being the best-run, friendliest supermarkets in town, where teammates are passionate about providing exceptional guest hospitality and where teammates and guests love to shop for great tasting food.
“While improving profitability and paving a clear path toward our desired future, we will strategically invest in resources and be diligent stewards of our culture and legacy. We will rid ourselves of antiquated beliefs and practices, changing from doing the things the way they have always been done to doing things the way they should be done.”
Private label expansion, market positioning
One of the initiatives identified is the company’s focus on private label development. Working with Associated Wholesale Grocers (AWG), of which BFS is a founding member, the company is resetting its stores with an emphasis on private label categories, including canned vegetables, pasta sauce and paper products. The initiative is already showing positive results.
“We did a horizontal set and a block set, and we tested it in four stores. After several weeks of data, we’re going out to reset all the stores with the preferred way that our guests wanted us to present it,” Ball said.
Balls Foods Stores’ banners carry AWG’s private label brands, with an emphasis on Best Choice and Always Save.
Store expansions, remodels
BFS also is making significant investments in store expansions and remodels. The company has two major projects in the works: a new Hen House store in Prairie Village, Kansas, set to open in summer 2026, and a second store in Olathe, Kansas, targeted for spring 2027.
“The Prairie Village store is a relocation,” Ball explained. “We have a store there that’s about 25,000 square feet, and the new one will be about 42,000 square feet. It’s taking over a closed Macy’s store.”
Competing in dynamic Kansas City market
Operating in what he termed as one of the last true independent grocery markets in the U.S., Ball said BFS thrives despite competition from national and regional chains, including Walmart, Aldi and Whole Foods.
“Kansas City is a melting pot for innovation in a competitive environment,” Ball said. “We had one of the first hypermarkets that Sam [Walton] built before he went to the Super Centers in 1988.
“This is a strong market as it relates to Walmart supercenters. This is a strong market as it relates to Aldi … We have Whole Foods. We have a very aggressive competitor out of Iowa. And then of course, a lot of independent grocers are in Kansas City. You name it, we have it here.”
Despite the competitive landscape, BFS continues to differentiate itself through its people and culture.
“Our teammates are No. 1. We have the best teammates in Kansas City,” Ball said. “A lot of people talk about investing in their people, but we do it. Especially in this BFS 2030 project. We are in the process of realigning our organizational structure, which will enable us to focus on store execution.”
Looking ahead
With the combination of the TSOP, BFS 2030, store expansions and a strong private label push, the next five years present a unique period of transformation and opportunity for Balls Food Stores.
Ball is confident that the company’s approach will continue to strengthen its competitive position and create lasting benefits for its teammates.
“We have a tremendous amount of career opportunities for our teammates over the next five years that we probably never have had in our 100 years of being in business. The opportunities for our teammates are going to be wonderful,” he said. “We’ve got our work cut out for us, but we’ve got a lot of good stuff happening.”
Love this! Wish more workplaces did this for their team and the people that work there. Inspired.