Randy Sauer, AIA, has joined HFA Architecture + Engineering as Senior Vice President, stepping into a leadership role that puts him at the helm of a team of more than 160 professionals dedicated to retail and grocery project design and delivery. The hire, effective October 1, signals HFA's intent to deepen its footprint with grocers and mass retailers navigating a capital-intensive period of store remodels, format evolution, and fulfillment infrastructure buildout.
Sauer relocates to the role from Portland, Oregon, after six years as a business development executive at ESI Construction, a Boise, Idaho-based firm with a well-established retail and grocery practice. Before that, he held vice president and principal-level positions at Core States Group, DLR Group, Gensler, and MG2 — a roster that reflects experience across virtually every tier of the architecture and engineering landscape serving food retail. His grocery-sector client history includes Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Target, and several Kroger-owned banners, giving him direct familiarity with the planning cycles and prototype standards of some of the largest operators in the channel.
Grocery Buildout Context
Sauer steps into the SVP seat at a moment when grocery operators are under dual pressure: managing elevated construction and operating costs while simultaneously accelerating investment in customer experience, convenience infrastructure, and price competitiveness. "Prices are high enough today that at times it can feel like a recession to some consumers," Sauer said. "Efficient project design empowers retailers to keep on delivering those lower prices their customers depend on." That framing is squarely in line with the capital allocation strategies visible across value-oriented banners — many of which are using the current environment to build customer loyalty through store investment rather than pulling back.
HFA's multidisciplinary platform — spanning architecture, structural engineering, refrigeration systems, MEP engineering, fueling, and permitting — positions the firm to serve grocers across a wide scope of project types, from ground-up new stores to brand refreshes and remodels. Sauer's mandate includes tightening cross-disciplinary collaboration within that team. The firm's fueling practice, which counts 7-Eleven, Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores, and Parker's Kitchen among its clients, is increasingly relevant as grocery-anchored fuel canopies add EV charging infrastructure alongside traditional pump configurations — a trend Sauer flagged as a growing retail capital priority. For grocery retailers evaluating store-level infrastructure and format strategy, the convergence of fuel, pickup, and fulfillment under a single design firm represents meaningful project-management efficiency.
What It Means for Operators
Dave Wilgus, CEO of HFA, framed the hire in terms of client service capacity. "Randy has led and grown the retail and grocery practices at some of the country's best-known AEC firms, helping clients better serve their customers and adapt to rapid change," Wilgus said. The firm, which is 100% employee-owned with more than 650 professionals across offices in Bentonville, Fort Worth, Baltimore, Springfield, Boston, and Mexico City, has the scale to handle multi-banner rollout programs — a key criterion for national grocers managing remodel pipelines and new-store development across hundreds of locations.
Sauer's stated philosophy — servant leadership, with a focus on supporting his team rather than commanding from above — tracks with HFA's collaborative, multidisciplinary structure. For grocery and CPG industry observers, the more consequential signal is what the hire says about where capital is flowing: into store environments that can deliver speed, value, and convenience at a time when shoppers are scrutinizing every price point on the planogram.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
