John Geisse: Never Say Retire

Don’t look for John Geisse to be accepting a gold watch any time soon. He’s tried retirement twice, and it doesn’t suit him. Three years ago when he was 64, an age when many executives turn increasingly to such things as passive investing and Florida, Geisse was busy raising the $3.7 million necessary to start a new company.

While many of his peers were giving up walking even nine holes of golf, opting instead for carts, Geisse took up sailboarding, a decidedly vigorous sport. (He has three sailboards at his home on Eagle Creek Reservoir; last year, he sailed one of them on New Year’s Day.)

Besides steering his sailboards, Geisse is also at the helm of a fast-growing, publicly traded company, The Wholesale Club, Inc., an Indianapolis-based discount retailer. Since its start-up, the company has opened 15 of its huge (100,000-square-foot) stores in four states: Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. Last year, The Wholesale Club reported sales of $158 million. Geisse is the company’s chairman and, with a 13.3 percent stake, its largest shareholder.

Of retirement, Geisse says: “l’m in no hurry. My health is good, and there’s a lot of work left to do here.”

The Wholesale Club is Geisse’s third start-up. ln 1962, he started the Target Stores discount chain for Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson Corp. Six years later, he formed The Venture Stores, the discount arm of St. Louis-based May Department Stores Co. Geisse retired for the first time in 1975. Then, he took up private consulting and later, retired again. ln 1981, he was approached by some West Coast venture capitalists who wanted to compete with the country’s first warehouse chain, San Diego-based Price Club, Inc., in what looked like a promising industry. Geisse liked the idea of warehouse sales but didn’t much take to California living, with its crowds and traffic jams. “So I decided to see if I could make the same concept work here in the Midwest,” he says.

In February 1984, the first Wholesale Club store opened, on the east-side of Indianapolis.

The stores engage in mass merchandising through self-service, cash-and-carry warehouses.

So far this year, the company has opened four new stores. Next year, it’ll open three. Geisse assures share-holders that, although growth has slowed, profits are expected next year, “Things will be GK," he says.

Nora McKinney Hia!! is an Indianapolis-based free-lance writer

By Nora McKinney Hiatt