Retail/Wholesale: STEVEN C. ‘STEVE’ SMITH

In April, Food City announced plans to launch a line of Ace Hardware stores called Curt’s Ace Hardware in honor of Smith’s grandfather. The first store is scheduled to open this summer in Bristol, Virginia, according to the Kingsport Times News.

The stores will fill a need in several communities where Food City stores are located, Smith explains. “Many local hardware stores have disappeared,” he laments.

Smith’s father, Jack C. Smith, grew a Piggly Wiggly store in Grundy into K-VA-T Food Stores Inc., the operator of Food City supermarkets. After graduating from James Madison University in 1979, Steven Smith went to work at the family business and was named CEO in 2001.

Today, K-VA-T owns 138 retail supermarkets across Southwest Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Kentucky and Alabama. The company earned $3.3 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2021.

Following July floods in Buchanan County, Food City raised $153,500 for relief efforts and contributed more than $250,000 in products.

Smith sits on the board of Grundy’s Mountain Mission School, a home, church and school for at-risk students.

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