SpartanNash is an American food distributor and grocery store retailer headquartered in Byron Center, Michigan. In terms of revenue, it is the largest food distributor serving military commissaries and exchanges in the United States. The Company’s core businesses include distributing food to military commissaries, independent grocers, and corporate-owned retail stores in 44 states, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. SpartanNash operates 167 retail stores.
History
The chain was founded in 1917 as the Grand Rapids Wholesale Grocery Company and assumed the Spartan Stores name in 1957. For most of its history, Spartan was a cooperative. Spartan changed to for profit in the 1970s and was first traded on the NASDAQ in August 2000.
In 2005, Spartan Stores, Inc. entered into a purchase agreement to acquire certain operating assets of D&W Food Centers, Inc.
In 2013, Spartan Stores and Nash Finch merged and formed SpartanNash company. The official name change was to occur May 2014 but a new site with the official new name and logo opened in November 2013. Under terms of the $1.3 billion deal, each Nash share would convert to 1.2 shares of Spartan Stock. Spartan retained 57.7% of the combined company while Nash owns 42.3% of the approximately 38 million outstanding stock shares. Integration and transaction closing-related costs of approximately $17 million to $18 million will be recorded in the quarter ending December 28, 2013.
In March 2017. it was announced that David Staples will replace Dennis Edison as Chief Executive Officer of SpartanNash. Edison will continue as the chairman of the company's board of directors after he retires as CEO in late May.
Expansion into retail
Spartan's retail operations started as independent grocery chains. However, in 1999, it bought the Family Fare, Great Day, Glen's, Ashcraft's, and Prevo's supermarket chains from their respective owners. To simplify advertising, the brands were consolidated into two: Family Fare in the south and Glen's in the north, each being the majority in its respective region.
In 2000, Spartan Stores merged with the Seaway Foodtown company whose operations included 47 Food Town Supermarkets and 26 The Pharm deep-discount drugstores. After the merger, the Food Town stores operated under their own banners, but heavy competition in areas where Food Town and The Pharm operated meant lower profits, and these stores negatively impacted the company's resources. Between 2000 and 2003, the company closed or sold eight Food Town Supermarkets and five The Pharm drugstores. In 2003, with an unmanageable debt load, Spartan Stores announced it would sell or close the 39 remaining Food Town stores and restructure the company.
In December 2005, Spartan Stores announced plans to purchase D&W Food Centers. The transaction closed at the end of March 2006. Ten of the twenty stores purchased retained the D&W banner, six others converted to the Family Fare banner, and the remaining four closed permanently.
In 2006, the company acquired through liquidation, five defunct Carter's Foods for which the company has not announced plans. It acquired the 20-store Felpausch chain of Hastings, Michigan in 2007 and has renovated one former store, in Williamston, Michigan, to the D&W Fresh Market banner and several others to the Family Fare banner.
In April 2008, Spartan announced that "certain assets" from 12 of the 14 remaining Pharm stores will be sold to Rite Aid. The remaining two stores will be sold in separate transactions. Industry experts said Rite Aid would likely keep the stores open and convert them to its own format and brand. The sale completed in late May 2008.
In October 2008, Spartan announced it would be purchase VGs Grocery and Pharmacy stores in Michigan. In late January 2011, the company converted the Felpausch store in Grand Ledge, Michigan, to a Family Fare store. Other stores, including several Glen's Markets in Northern Michigan, began undergoing conversion to the Family Fare name.
Spartan Stores announced its acquisition of Nash Finch Company, based in Edina, Minnesota in 2013.
Grocery retail stores
Prior to 2013
- Family Fare: purchased in March 1999.
- Glen's Markets: purchased in May 1999. Starting in 2013, SpartanNash began renovating Glen's stores while concurrently converting them to the Family Fare and D&W names; the last converted in 2014
- D&W Fresh Market: purchase announced in December 2005 and completed in March 2006.
- VG's Grocery: 11 stores (10 Pharmacies and 3 Quick Stops) in Eastern Michigan, purchased in December 2008. VG's was previously Spartan's largest independent distribution customer. In 2009, a location in New Baltimore closed; locations in Burton, Shelby Township, and Flint closed in December 2013. The Waterford location was sold in March 2014; The Pontiac location also closed in 2014.
- Valu Land
- Forest Hills Foods
2013 Nash Finch Merger
With the Spartan Stores and Nash Finch Company merger in November 2013 the following stores were added:
- Econofoods: 9 locations in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
- Family Fresh Market: 1 location in Minnesota.
- Family Thrift Center: 4 locations in South Dakota.
- Germantown Fresh Market: Germantown, OH.
- No Frills Supermarkets & Bag'n Save: 29 locations in Iowa and Nebraska.
- Pick'n Save: 1 location in Ohio.
- Prairie Market: 1 location in South Dakota.
- Sun Mart Foods: 19 locations in Nebraska, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Colorado.
- Supermercado Nuestra Familia: 2 locations in Nebraska.
- Wholesale Food Outlet: 1 location in Iowa.
In August 2014, the company began rebranding select Sun Mart locations in West Fargo, ND and Dickinson, ND to the Family Fare Supermarkets format. Two additional Fargo, ND stores and a Moorhead, MN store followed in October 2014.
All three Sunmart locations in Lincoln, Nebraska were closed over a short period of time by SpartanNash: in March and October 2014, and February 2015. A Hastings, Nebraska store was also closed in 2014, and SpartanNash performed a $1 million renovation on a Sunmart in Kearney, rebranding it as Family Fresh Market.
Former grocery retail stores
- Food Town: 45 Supermarkets in Ohio and Southeast Michigan acquired, along with 14 The Pharm drugstores from the Seaway Foodtown company of Maumee, Ohio in August 2000. These stores were originally operated under their acquired name, but in 2003, Spartan Stores announced that they were selling or closing all the Foodtown stores and dropping the Foodtown name from their roster of brands. Seventeen of the stores were sold to the Kroger Company; nine to independent operators and 13 were closed.
- The Pharm: Thirteen stores (pharmacies) in Ohio, and one store (pharmacy), in Southeast Michigan 26 The Pharm stores were owned and operated by Seaway Foodtown at the time of the Seaway Food Town/Spartan merger. Over the years, many stores closed and the last 14 were sold in 2008: 12 stores to Rite-Aid; and 2 stores to independent operators.
- Felpausch Food Centers: Purchased in early 2007. Spartan re-branded all the Felpausch locations except Kimball and, Leslie (Value Land) as D&W or Family Fare.
Private brands
- b∙lÄ"ve
- Full Circle
- Nash Brothers Trading Company
- Our Family
- PAWS Premium
- Spartan Brand
- Spartan Fresh Selections
- TopCare
- Valu Time
- World Classics
Finance
In December 2005, Spartan Stores' board of directors approved a change to the Company's dividend policy, which allowed the company to pay a quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 per common share beginning in its fiscal 2006 fourth quarter.
References
External links
- SpartanNash
- Spartan Retail
- Family Fare
- D&W Fresh Market
- VG's Grocery
- VG's Fresh Market
- MDV