Southern Family Markets
| Company type | Subsidiary of C&S Wholesale Grocers |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Products | Dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, produce, general merchandise, pharmacy, health and beauty care |
| Website | www.cswg.com |
Southern Family Markets, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a chain of American supermarkets owned and operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a distributor based in Keene, New Hampshire. The chain is operated as an affiliate of C&S. Southern Family Markets currently operates 64 supermarkets and 10 liquor stores under the banners Southern Family Markets, Piggly Wiggly, Bruno's, and Food World.
C&S created the chain in 2005, when it acquired 104 stores from BI-LO, which operated stores under the BI-LO, Bruno's Supermarkets, Food World, FoodMax and Food Fair brand names.[1] These stores were primarily smaller and older, and frequently found in declining neighborhoods. In addition, Southern Family acquired 7 stores from Winn-Dixie, which had been undergoing a retrenchment out of upper regions of the Southeast, back toward its home base of Florida due to bankruptcy restructuring of the company. These stores were located in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. In 2010, all of these locations are now closed.
Under increasing competition from other grocers, supercenters, warehouse stores and natural food stores, Southern Family Markets announced in August 2006 that they would either close or sell 30 stores in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi along with their complete North Carolina market of 17 stores. This also led to a significant round of SFM headquarter layoffs (over 60 displaced employees), particularly to those employees without Bruno's or C&S background. These layoffs took place in late August and September 2006.[2] Soon after, on November 30, 2006, Southern Family Markets announced that they were closing all seven of their stores in Tennessee,[3] then announced on January 5, 2007 that it would close all six stores in its hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.[4]
In August 2007, C&S converted six Southern Family stores in Georgia to the Piggly Wiggly brand name.[5] In October 2007, seven Southern Family stores in Alabama were converted to the Piggly Wiggly banner.[6] In January 2008, three additional Southern Family stores in Alabama were converted to the Piggly Wiggly banner.[7][8]
On April 30, 2009, as part of the Bruno's Supermarkets bankruptcy proceedings, Southern Family Markets agreed to purchase 31 Bruno's locations on a "going concern" basis in a $45.8 million deal. In partnership with Hilco Liquidations, Southern Family Markets held "going out of business" sales at the 25 Bruno's, Food World, and Foodmax stores that they did not acquire.[9] The purchase would return the company to a retail presence in metro Birmingham, with six Bruno's and Food World locations remaining open.[10]
In September 2009, SFM announced plans to close stores in Carrollton, Dublin, and Macon, Georgia due to underperformance. In March 2010, SFM announced plans to close two stores in Huntsville, Alabama due to underperformance. This made a total of 9 stores to close since SFM/C&S Wholesale acquired Bruno's Supermarkets in mid 2009.
SFM has no plans or intentions of buying or building any new stores. There have been no new ground-up locations built since the inception of the company in 2005.
On October 5, 2010, Southern Family Markets announced the closings of the Food World stores in Trussville and Pelham (both in the Birmingham, Alabama area). These closings will be completed by early November 2010. The reason cited was underperformance.
This will increase the total number of store closings since SFM took possession of Bruno's to 11.
Leadership
There have been several CEO/President/General Managers since the inception of the company in 2005. Frank Curci (now CEO at Tops Markets in New York) was the first CEO and left the company in early 2006. He was followed by Bill White who came from Maryland but had been a previous senior staffer with Bruno's and Piggly Wiggly Vidalia, Georgia. White left in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Burkhead (whose title was General Manager, not CEO). Burkhead was a district manager with Bruno's and then SFM before being elevated to the new top position. Burkhead was replaced in 2010 by Max Henderson, who ironically,had a background with Tops Markets (the home of the first SFM CEO Frank Curci). Henderson was familiar with the operations of C&S Wholesale Grocers, the owners of SFM. Most of the SFM corporate employees were either former Bruno's or C&S employees. Nearly all the remaining stores in the chain, with a few exceptions, were former Bruno's locations (either under the Food World or Bruno's banner). Henderson reports to C&S executives Bob Palmer and Rick Cohen. Jeff Burkhead left the company in the spring of 2010 and now is the owner/operator of a single supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee.
Banners
SFM has been steadily converting the store names of its remaining locations from Southern Family Markets to either Piggly Wiggly or re-using the Bruno's/Food World name in some of the locations acquired in the 2009 purchase the Bruno's assets from Lone Star Funds.
Future and Belle Foods
On July 1, 2012, Belle Foods took over the store operation of 57 Southern Family Markets stores located in Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi and Florida, which it had acquired. Belle Foods President and CEO Bill White says he "sees great growth potential for the company and its employees," and the chain will continue to use C&S as its supplier.[11] It is unknown if there are any remaining Southern Family Markets stores not affected by the Belle Foods takeover.
Headquarters
SFM headquarters is located in part of the former Bruno's headquarters located on Lakeshore Parkway in Birmingham, Alabama. C&S has been trying to sell or lease not only the part of the campus being used by SFM but the portion used by Bruno's until fall 2008 but has not been able to find a tenant. A move from the Bruno's building was announced in 2005 but was never made. No new location was ever disclosed when the announcement was made.
C&S Wholesale Grocers has subleased portions of the warehouse space to other parties since 2008. The warehouse was over 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2). of space and with the declining volume of groceries shipped from the facility each year, less space was needed to maintain the remaining business. Therefore, space was freed up for other entities to lease.
References
- ^ C&S affiliate buys stores, press release, May 3, 2005
- ^ Southern Family Markets to Exit North Carolina, The Food Partners, August 10, 2006
- ^ Southern Family to Close Tennessee Stores, Supermarket News, November 30, 2006
- ^ Southern Family Closing Birmingham Stores, Supermarket News, January 5, 2007
- ^ Grocer hopes Mr. Pig boosts sales, Athens Banner-Herald, July 31, 2007
- ^ More Southern Family Stores to Switch to Piggly Wiggly, Supermarket News dated September 27, 2007
- ^ Southern Family stores to become Piggly Wiggly, DecaturDaily.com, January 10, 2008
- ^ Market to open Wednesday, TimesDaily.com, January 13, 2008
- ^ Bruno's sells 56 stores in $46M deal, bizjournals.com, April 30, 2009
- ^ Southern Family Markets Buys Bruno's; Some Stores Will Close, ABC 33/40, May 1, 2009
- ^ Belle Foods Finalizes Purchase Of Southern Family Markets Stores , theshelbyreport.com, July 2, 2012