Henry's Farmers Market

Henry's Farmers Market
Genre Supermarkets
Successor Sprouts Farmers Market
Founded 1943
Headquarters Phoenix, Arizona, USA
Owner(s) Apollo Capital Management, LP
Website henrysmarkets.com

Henry's Farmers Market (also known as Henry's) was a food retailer that operated in California.

History

Henry’s Farmers Market was an operator of natural-foods stores that suggest a shopping experience reminiscent of produce stands and neighborhood butchers of the 1950s. Henry’s stores offered produce, vitamins and supplements, and all-natural foods, including bulk grains, nuts and candy, whole-grain breads, fresh meats and seafood, deli offerings, and a wide variety of grocery products.

The roots of Henry's Farmers Market were established in 1943 when a family bought a truckload of peaches and sold them on a street corner in San Diego.

Henry's first store in Northern California, opened in Elk Grove, California on August 18, 2010.

In December 2010, Henry's announced plans to open its first store in Boise, Idaho in 2011.[1] However, a week after the announcement, plans for the Boise store were stalled.[2]

Acquisitions

In 1999, Wild Oats Markets, Inc. acquired Henry's Marketplace from the Henry Boney Family. The Henry's chain included 23 stores in Southern California and one in Northern California. Following a highly debated merger in August 2007, Wild Oats was acquired by Whole Foods Market.

Soon thereafter, in October 2007, Whole Foods Market sold all 35 Henry's Farmers Market and Sun Harvest Market stores to a subsidiary of Los Angeles grocer Smart & Final, Inc., for $166 million. Earlier in 2007, Smart & Final had been acquired by the private equity firm Apollo Management.

"Sprouts" is the second specialty market brand developed by the Henry Boney family, who sold their Henry's Farmers Markets in 1999.[3] Sprouts has announced that it will be merging with Henry's Farmers Market. The combined company, which will operate under the name Sprouts Farmers Market, had 98 stores and more than 7,000 employees at the time the transaction closed in the second quarter of 2011.[4] Two locations in Temecula, California will operate under the Henry's Farmers Market name due to an unrelated retailer with a similar name, Sprouts Natural Market, operating in the area.[5] [6]

References

  1. ^ Two upscale grocery stores coming to downtown Boise in 2011
  2. ^ Henry's Farmers Market in Downtown Boise may not happen
  3. ^ Giddens, David (2005-06-10). "Sprouts growing in North Texas". Dallas Business Journal.
  4. ^ [1] "Sprout's website"
  5. ^ Hamstra, Mark (16 February 2011). "Apollo Combines Sprouts, Henry's". Supermarket News (Penton Media, Inc.). http://supermarketnews.com/news/sprout_henry_0216/. Retrieved 4 December 2011. 
  6. ^ Crabtree, Penni (27 February 2011). "Merger of Henry's, Sprouts is latest in Boney family's retail saga". SignOn San Diego (The San Diego Union-Tribune, LLC). http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/27/merger-henrys-sprouts-latest-twist-boney-family-sa/. Retrieved 4 December 2011.