BI-LO (United States)

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BI-LO

Type	Private
Founded	1966
Headquarters	Mauldin, South Carolina
Key people	Brian Hotarek, president & CEO
Industry	Retail (Grocery)
Products	Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks
Revenue	$3.6 billion USD (2006)
Employees	23,500
Website	www.bi-lo.com

BI-LO is a supermarket chain headquartered in Mauldin, South Carolina. It operates stores in Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee. Supermarket News ranked BI-LO/Bruno's No. 34 in the 2007 "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" based on 2006 fiscal year estimated sales of $3.6 billion.^[1]

1 History
2 BiLo Foods
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

BI-LO was established in 1966. Ahold bought BI-LO in 1977. In 1994, Ahold purchased Red Food Stores, Inc. and its 55 locations in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, which were merged into BI-LO in 1995.^[2]^[3]

In 2005, Ahold sold BI-LO to Lone Star Funds.^[4] The new owners sold off approximately 100 BI-LO and Bruno's stores in areas where the chain did not have significant market penetration, most of which have become Southern Family Markets.^[5] C&S Wholesale Grocers is BI-LO's distribution company, due to the fact that BI-LO Holdings (the parent company of BI-LO supermarkets and Bruno's Supermarkets) sold its distribution centers in order to concentrate on renovating the older stores, building new ones, and investing in newer information technology.

In 1998, the company sponsored the construction of the BI-LO Center in Greenville, South Carolina.

As of 2007, BI-LO/Bruno's operates over 300 stores in six states.

[edit] BiLo Foods

It has been suggested that this section be split into a new article. (Discuss)

BiLo also exists as a separate entity as part of the small Friedman's and Riverside Grocery Store chain with 43 locations in western Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. The "BiLo/Riverside" supermarkets trademark is owned by Penn Traffic Co.