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Veteran retailer and wholesaler Thomas S. Hanemann began his career in wholesaling more than 30 years ago. He is known for his visionary thinking and charismatic leadership and is particularly effective in creating a company culture and keeping that culture alive at all levels of the organization.
In 1974, he joined Super D Drugstores, the drugstore division of Malone & Hyde, a large New York Stock Exchange grocery wholesaler. He was named president of the company in 1978. During his tenure, he created a chain of drugstores managed by pharmacists. This focused the company on prescription sales and made it the employer of choice for pharmacists. As president, he also expanded Super D to more than 100 stores and increased its sales to $150 million.
In 1983, while serving as Super D's president, he founded Ike's Deep Discount Drugstores, a high-volume-discount retail drug chain selling health and beauty aids at deeply discounted prices. At Ike's, Hanemann created a culture where employees worked in teams and felt ownership in their jobs. Ike's was known for the esprit de corps among its workers.
Malone & Hyde created the Fortune 500 national chain of auto parts stores known as AutoZone. Hanemann was one of the leaders of that business and was named executive vice president of stores and distribution centers in 1985. In this role, he developed a culture of superior customer service that became the cornerstone of AutoZone's business. From 1993-1996, he served as the company's president and as a member of its board of directors. Under his leadership, AutoZone grew to be the largest auto parts chain in the industry with 1,500 stores and $2.4 billion in sales. In 1993, AutoZone placed second in earnings and 57th in profitability in Forbes magazine's ranking of more than 1,200 companies.
Hanemann retired from AutoZone in 1996 and started his own company, Chandler-Hanemann, L.L.C. As chief manager of the company, he created a joint venture with his daughters to pursue a family passion, cooking. The result of the venture is an upscale prepared food market, Cheffries.
Hanemann joined the True Value Company Board in 2002. With the resignation of CEO Pamela Forbes Lieberman in November 2004, the Board named Hanemann as interim CEO to lead the company’s day-to-day operations and initiatives and to help ensure a smooth transition while searching for a successor. Hanemann served in this capacity until June 2005.
Hanemann earned his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Tennessee. | 