SUPERVALU to sell Farm Fresh banner to Kroger, Harris Teeter, Food Lion
SUPERVALU is exploring potential transactions to sell the remaining Farm Fresh stores to current and prospective wholesale customers and certain Farm Fresh employees.
SUPERVALU INC., Eden Prairie, Minn., entered into three separate agreements to sell 21 of its 38 Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy stores for approximately $43 million to three different retailers—Harris Teeter, Matthews, N.C.; Kroger Mid-Atlantic Division, Atlanta; and Food Lion, Salisbury, N.C. SUPERVALU is exploring potential transactions to sell the remaining Farm Fresh stores to current and prospective wholesale customers and certain Farm Fresh employees.
“Over the past two years, we’ve been working diligently and rapidly to transform our business to become the wholesale supplier of choice for grocery retailers across the United States,” says Mark Gross, SUPERVALU’s president and CEO. “In 2016, we sold Save-A-Lot and its network of approximately 1,350 retail locations. Last year, we acquired Unified Grocers and Associated Grocers of Florida, which when combined with substantial organic growth, added more than $5 billion in run rate sales to bring our core wholesale business to nearly $13 billion. Exiting the Farm Fresh banner will enable us to allocate greater resources and energy toward the strategic growth of our wholesale business. We also continue to aggressively pursue other important initiatives, including the monetization of real estate through sale leaseback transactions and cost reduction across the company. We are confident our efforts are driving growth and enhancing our competitive position.”