Owner of Winn-Dixie, BI-LO to Close 94 Stores, File for Bankruptcy

The latest updates:

April 19:
Southeastern Grocers has begun announcing several more store sales, among locations that were not previously announced as being marked for sale or closure. Click here to see the latest continuously-updated list of affected stores.

March 27:
As planned, Southeastern Grocers officially filed for bankruptcy this morning. The company expressed optimism that it will successfully emerge from the process, after restructuring debt and closing stores that “are in regions over-saturated with competition” and are “a financial drain” on the company. The list of store closings has declined by nine, however. Three Harveys stores and six Winn-Dixie locations that were previously identified as being marked for closure, have instead been sold to new owners, along with 30 additional stores not marked for closure that were sold prior to the bankruptcy filing. The list of store closings below has been updated to shift those nine stores from “closing” to “sold”.

March 16 (original story):
Another day, another retail bankruptcy. This time, it’s Southeastern Grocers, the owner of BI-LO, Winn-Dixie, Harveys and the Hispanic chain Fresco y Más. The company on Thursday confirmed long-standing rumors of an imminent bankruptcy filing, making a preemptive announcement that it would file for bankruptcy later this month – and close 94 of its 676 stores.

Affected are 45 “underperforming” Winn-Dixie locations, 26 Harveys stores, 22 BI-LO locations and a single Fresco store, spread across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina (see the full list below).

Ahead of its planned bankruptcy filing, Southeastern Grocers announced it has reached a financial restructuring agreement with creditors “that will position the company for long-term financial health”.

“We will work through this process as quickly and efficiently as possible,” Southeastern Grocers President and CEO Anthony Hucker said in a statement. “We are excited to emerge with the optimal store footprint and greater financial flexibility.”

The “optimal store footprint” is, of course, a euphemism for a fleet of stores that doesn’t include any losers. The company has been working to refresh and renovate many of its stores, so shuttering some of its oldest, more tired locations will make the remaining stores look that much better. In fact, among the stores to be closed are several former Winn-Dixie and BI-LO locations that were recently transformed into Harveys or Fresco in an attempt to give them a new lease on life.

On Consumer Reports’ most recent list of the country’s best and worst grocery chains, Winn-Dixie was named the tenth worst, with BI-LO faring only slightly better.

But the company has been trying to right the ship in recent years. It’s implemented store-wide price cuts at BI-LO and Winn-Dixie, evolved and expanded Harveys into a no-frills discount grocer, and outsourced the stores’ previous loyalty programs to American Express-run Plenti. Some of those efforts have been more successful than others – Southeastern Grocers is one of the last remaining participants of the slowly crumbling Plenti coalition loyalty program, which has looked to be on its last legs for quite some time.

Like Tops Friendly Markets, which filed for bankruptcy last month, and Farm Fresh, which owner Supervalu said this week it would wind down, Southeastern Grocers’ traditional, middle-of-the-road stores have found themselves caught between rapidly-growing deep discounters and higher-end competitors, not to mention new challenges from Amazon’s entry into the business and the expansion of online grocery services.

It doesn’t help that the company is deeply in debt, either. Details about the depth of the company’s financial woes, and its plans to restructure its debts, won’t be known until it actually files for bankruptcy. It’s also possible that the company could end up selling or closing more stores before it emerges from the restructuring process.

For the time being, the company is expressing optimism about its future. “We will continue to thrive with 582 successful stores in operation and will continue to deliver a store experience our associates, customers and communities can count on,” Southeastern Grocers said. It predicted the company would emerge from its restructuring process within 90 days, better positioning it to “create stunning, remodeled stores in a significant portion of our footprint” and providing customers with “fresh, new concepts and products to cater to the local tastes and needs of the neighborhoods we serve.”

But shoppers and employees of at least 94 stores won’t be able to reap the benefits of that transformation. What follows is a list of the stores to be closed in the coming weeks and months – and with any luck, the list won’t grow before this whole process is over.

UPDATE: STORES PREVIOUSLY SET TO CLOSE, NOW SOLD TO NEW OWNERS:

BI-LO STORES TO CLOSE:

FRESCO STORE TO CLOSE:

HARVEYS STORES TO CLOSE:

WINN-DIXIE STORES TO CLOSE:

Image source: Southeastern Grocers