Skip to footer

Supervalu Inc. to sell 5 grocery chains, including Albertsons, Acme, and Shaw's

The sale to AB Acquisition, an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management, will include 877 stores. 

  • By Associated Press

| NEW YORK

Supervalu Inc. says it reached a deal to sell five of its biggest grocery chains — Albertson's, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's and Star Market — for $100 million in cash and more than $3 billion in debt.

The sale to AB Acquisition, an investor group led by Cerberus Capital Management, will include 877 stores. Cerberus will also offer to buy up to 30 percent of the remaining Supervalu for $4 per share after the deal closes.

The investor group will acquire the stores for $100 million in cash, and the new company will assume $3.2 billion in existing debt.

Supervalu has struggled for years to turn around its business. The broader supermarket industry has been facing growing competition from big-box retailers such as Target, drug store chains and even dollar stores. While bigger chains such as Kroger Co. have adapted by tweaking store formats and building customer loyalty through discount programs and improved offerings, Supervalu has scrambled to keep pace.

This summer, Supervalu fired its CEO and tapped Chairman Wayne Sales to lead a turnaround. The company said at the time that it was reviewing its options, such as putting itself up for sale.

Following the closing of the deal, Supervalu will consist of a food wholesaler, Save-A-Lot, and regional chains Cub, Farm Fresh, Shoppers, Shop 'n Save and Hornbacher's. The company, based in Eden Prairie, Minn., is expected to generate annual revenue of more than $17 billion, down from $35 billion. Supervalu said it will continue to work on cutting costs and fixing its business.

Supervalu said grocery retail veteran Sam Duncan will replace Sales after the deal closes.

Its shares were up 15 percent at $3.51.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Supervalu Inc. to sell 5 grocery chains, including Albertsons, Acme, and Shaw's
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Latest-News-Wires/2013/0110/Supervalu-Inc.-to-sell-5-grocery-chains-including-Albertsons-Acme-and-Shaw-s
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe