New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
‘That’s how he learned’
Stew Leonard’s places family member in senior exec position
From singing animatronic characters along store aisles to plopping a grocery store in an oldschool mall, Stew Leonard’s has never been shy to upend the standard supermarket formula. But the company’s newest senior executive — a nephew of CEO Stew Leonard Jr. — admits the chain’s experiments haven’t always gone according to plan, recollecting an attempt last year at vegan chocolate chip cookies it still hopes to sell one day.
“It sounded great — but you can’t get away from a real chocolate chip cookie,” said Jake Tavello, the newly installed chief operating officer of Stew Leonard’s based in Norwalk. “If you go down there today, you’re not going to see vegan chocolate chip cookies. But at Stew Leonard’s, we have an entrepreneurial spirit where we encourage people to try stuff. That item didn’t work — but you’re going to see 10 new items down there.”
With Tavello’s promotion, Stew Leonard’s is sticking with its timetested recipe of family management in addition to family ownership. Through his mother Jill Leonard Tavello who formerly led human resources at Stew Leonard’s, Tavello is a grandson of Stew Leonard Sr. who founded the company in Norwalk in 1969. Stew Leonard’s has seven supermarkets today in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey, with additional liquor stores carrying the Stew Leonard’s Wine & Spirits name.
“Growing up it was just so part of our family,” Tavello told CT Insider this week at the headquarters store in Norwalk. “I would come in with my mom and be in here looking around as a little kid, with all the colors and the sights and the sounds. And what’s really cool is that I have a two-year-old now, and I’m bringing him in.”
Tavello acknowledged the challenge in approaching his uncle’s magnetic, ebullient personality that the company features regularly in videos on YouTube, Facebook and other channels, including this week in a kitchen tutorial on preparing lamb for Easter spreads.
“It’s hard to walk the stores with him, because every customer is coming up to him,” Tavello said. “But Stew told me that’s how he learned from his father, just going around the store with him and spending time with him.
“More than being a great salesman, that’s what Stew has done — he’s kept a great, great culture,” Tavello added. “I want to make sure all of us keep that culture going.”
Stew Leonard Jr.’s daughter Blake Leonard is also a senior manager in the family business running Stew Leonard’s Wines & Spirits, after an apprenticeship at E. & J. Gallo Winery.
Tavello’s own managerial training ground was New York-based Wegman’s, which chose a Connecticut Avenue site in Norwalk for its first Connecticut store that is currently under development. Tavello learned the ropes at Wegman’s first Massachusetts store, before returning to Stew Leonard’s as a store manager in Danbury, then opening the company’s first New Jersey store at the Paramus Park Mall.
Tavello lives in Westport where he grew up in and attended Greens Farms Academy, while working at Stew Leonard’s during free hours of the day. He went on to get an undergraduate degree from Salve Regina University, then joined Wegman’s for two years, before going on to get his MBA from Bentley University and returning to Stew Leonard’s in 2015.
There was no education like the crash course of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, with Tavello and other managers having to figure out problems on the fly ranging from protective steps like cleansing and Plexiglass shields at checkout, to keeping shelves stocked which was a continuing issue through last year with the baby formula crisis. Tavello was managing the Paramus Park Mall store in New Jersey when the pandemic hit, overseeing a staff that had only come together in September 2019.
“What I learned was how important communication is,” Tavello said. “Get a good group of people together; figure out what are the options; problem solve; and ... as we listen to customers and more information comes in, adapt.”
As chief operating officer, Tavello will have responsibility for overseeing stores and back-end operations across three states. Other senior executives include Patrick Dentato, chief financial officer who Stew Leonard’s hired in 2016 after several years as CFO of King Foods and Balducci’s.
The company has regularly whisked the grandchildren off to retreats to coach them on the extra challenges faced by businesses run by families, to include the topics of working effectively together and ownership succession.
Most recently, Tavello said, the group traveled to Freeport, Maine, where they got exposure to L.L. Bean’s experience under family ownership. The retailer hired its first non-family member as CEO in 2001, when Bridgeport and Redding native Chris McCormick got the top job. Stephen Smith is CEO of L.L. Bean today, after a retail career that has included roles with Walmart and Ahold Delhaize, whose subsidiaries include Stop & Shop and Hannaford Bros.
“As I think to the future, those values that made the business great — not just with innovation, but customer service and quality and having great people — those are the things that we really want to continue,” Tavello said. “It’s hard to do — but as a family business we’re fortunate that we can make long-term decisions like that.”