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Discount Store News, Sept 18, 1995 by Don Longo

When Venture chairman Julian Seeherman gets together with other A&S alumni at the now-defunct department store retailer's annual reunion in New York City this fall the discussion is bound to center on change,

"Discounting has never been an easy life. Though I've only been in discounting for 17 years, things have changed drastically," Seeherman told an audience of more than 500 industry executives last month at his induction into DSN's Discounting Hall of Fame.

"In the past, the alternative shopping vehicle to the department store was the mall. A strip mall was not usually the first place people wold think to go--usually it was the last place," said Seeherman.

"All that has changed. The discount store is now often the first place people go, and they expect us to have the best--the best products, the best brands and the best prices."

In a 44-year career that included top-level experience in the department store, catalog showroom and full-line discount store industries, Seeherman is best known as a flexible, old-time merchant, quick to adapt to changing consumer whims and dedicated to keeping Venture one of the most nimble and successful regional discount chains in the nation.

At a time when Venture is attempting to reposition itself in the face of current market realities, Seeherman remains a forceful advocate for change, even if he sometimes seems in awe of the very magnitude of that change.

"We have gotten so big," Seeherman told DSN. In the past, a buyer would review a product based on its sales potential and profitability, and then order it. Today, the logistics of the deal are of critical import. "Now we are dealing with container loads of merchandise. The numbers are staggering for even a medium-sized, $2 billion company like us."

Merchandising and replenishment are "now two separate and important functions that must be merged" to operate effectively in today's marketplace, said Seeherman.

"Today the retailer and vendor must develop plans together as a necessary function in order to exist," Seeherman told the audience of retailers and suppliers who gathered to honor him at DSN's SPARC awards banquet in Chicago. "It's not just about placing an order anymore."

Seeherman's career underwent extensive change as he skyrocketed to the chairmanship of the sixth largest discount department store chain in the country.

A Wilkes Barre, Pa., native, Seeherman entered retailing as an executive trainee for Abraham & Strauss, a division of Federated Department Stores, Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1951 after graduation from college. He rose through the ranks of management at A&S and became executive vice president in 1975.

In 1977, Seeherman joined The May Co. as president and ceo of Consumers Distributing, a catalog showroom chain headquartered in Secaucus, N.J.

In 1978, he was transferred to Venture Stores as vice chairman and became president in 1982. He played a key role in stabilizing the O'Fallon, Mo.-based regional discounter at a time when several top executives were reassigned to Venture's then-sister discount chain, Caldor.

Seeherman was named president and ceo of Venture in 1984, and in January 1990 he became chairman and ceo.

By being more fashion correct and quicker to react to trends than many of its competitors, and maintaining a lean and efficient operation, Venture was one of the most successful regional discount chains for over a decade.

Seeherman took the company public in 1990. Following the first year that Venture operated as an independent public company, Seeherman was voted Discounter of the Year by industry executives in balloting administered by DSN.

"No matter how good we are today, we must get better," Seeherman told DSN in an interview a couple of days after receiving his Discounter of the Year trophy in 1991. "It won't get any easier."

That attitude of striving to become better is clearly in evidence today as Venture attempts to reposition itself in the consumer's mind. Last year, Seeherman brought in an outsider, a former department store executive like himself, Robert Wildrick, to lead the remerchandising effort. No doubt, it was a risky proposition to so dramatically detour from a formula that had worked so well for so long. Yet more than a year of lackluster results and the ever-increasing need to differentiate itself in a crowded market made the risk a necessity.

And Seeherman has never been afraid of risk. In 1993, when everyone questioned the wisdom of Venture's expansion into Texas, he countered that new, modern Venture stores would turn the competitive tables on older Wal-Mart and Target stores in that state. Today, the Texas stores are the bright spot in Venture's geographic spread.

Among his other awards, Seeherman received recognition at the 1992 convention of the International Mass Retail Association, where he was presented with the Associate Member Committee's "Partnership Award." The award is given annually to "the individual who best forwards the spirit of partnership between retailers and industry suppliers."