| Type | Subsidiary of C&S Wholesale Grocers |
|---|---|
| Industry | Retail |
| Founded | 2005 |
| Headquarters | Birmingham, Alabama |
| Products | Dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, produce, general merchandise, pharmacy, health and beauty care |
| Website | www.cswg.com |
Southern Family Markets, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a chain of American supermarkets owned and operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a distributor based in Keene, New Hampshire. The chain is operated as an affiliate of C&S. Southern Family Markets currently operates 64 supermarkets and 10 liquor stores under the banners Southern Family Markets, Piggly Wiggly, Bruno's, and Food World.
C&S created the chain in 2005, when it acquired 104 stores from BI-LO, which operated stores under the BI-LO, Bruno's Supermarkets, Food World, FoodMax and Food Fair brand names.[1] These stores were primarily smaller and older, and frequently found in declining neighborhoods. In addition, Southern Family acquired 7 stores from Winn-Dixie, which had been undergoing a retrenchment out of upper regions of the Southeast, back toward its home base of Florida due to bankruptcy restructuring of the company. These stores were located in North Carolina, Alabama, and Mississippi. In 2010, all of these locations are now closed.
Under increasing competition from other grocers, supercenters, warehouse stores and natural food stores, Southern Family Markets announced in August 2006 that they would either close or sell 30 stores in Alabama, Georgia, and Mississippi along with their complete North Carolina market of 17 stores. This also led to a significant round of SFM headquarter layoffs (over 60 displaced employees), particularly to those employees without Bruno's or C&S background. These layoffs took place in late August and September 2006.[2] Soon after, on November 30, 2006, Southern Family Markets announced that they were closing all seven of their stores in Tennessee,[3] then announced on January 5, 2007 that it would close all six stores in its hometown of Birmingham, Alabama.[4]
In August 2007, C&S converted six Southern Family stores in Georgia to the Piggly Wiggly brand name.[5] In October 2007, seven Southern Family stores in Alabama were converted to the Piggly Wiggly banner.[6] In January 2008, three additional Southern Family stores in Alabama were converted to the Piggly Wiggly banner.[7][8]
On April 30, 2009, as part of the Bruno's Supermarkets bankruptcy proceedings, Southern Family Markets agreed to purchase 31 Bruno's locations on a "going concern" basis in a $45.8 million deal. In partnership with Hilco Liquidations, Southern Family Markets held "going out of business" sales at the 25 Bruno's, Food World, and Foodmax stores that they did not acquire.[9] The purchase would return the company to a retail presence in metro Birmingham, with six Bruno's and Food World locations remaining open.[10]
In September 2009, SFM announced plans to close stores in Carrollton, Dublin, and Macon, Georgia due to underperformance. In March 2010, SFM announced plans to close two stores in Huntsville, Alabama due to underperformance. This made a total of 9 stores to close since SFM/C&S Wholesale acquired Bruno's Supermarkets in mid 2009.
SFM has no plans or intentions of buying or building any new stores. There have been no new ground-up locations built since the inception of the company in 2005.
On October 5, 2010, Southern Family Markets announced the closings of the Food World stores in Trussville and Pelham (both in the Birmingham, Alabama area). These closings will be completed by early November 2010. The reason cited was underperformance.
This will increase the total number of store closings since SFM took possession of Bruno's to 11.
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There have been several CEO/President/General Managers since the inception of the company in 2005. Frank Curci (now CEO at Tops Markets in New York) was the first CEO and left the company in early 2006. He was followed by Bill White who came from Maryland but had been a previous senior staffer with Bruno's and Piggly Wiggly Vidalia, Georgia. White left in 2007 and was replaced by Jeff Burkhead (whose title was General Manager, not CEO). Burkhead was a district manager with Bruno's and then SFM before being elevated to the new top position. Burkhead was replaced in 2010 by Max Henderson, who ironically,had a background with Tops Markets (the home of the first SFM CEO Frank Curci). Henderson was familiar with the operations of C&S Wholesale Grocers, the owners of SFM. Most of the SFM corporate employees were either former Bruno's or C&S employees. Nearly all the remaining stores in the chain, with a few exceptions, were former Bruno's locations (either under the Food World or Bruno's banner). Henderson reports to C&S executives Bob Palmer and Rick Cohen. Jeff Burkhead left the company in the spring of 2010 and now is the owner/operator of a single supermarket in Memphis, Tennessee.
SFM has been steadily converting the store names of its remaining locations from Southern Family Markets to either Piggly Wiggly or re-using the Bruno's/Food World name in some of the locations acquired in the 2009 purchase the Bruno's assets from Lone Star Funds.
The future of the company is clouded by the fact that no new ground-up stores have ever been built since the company's founding in 2005 and none are planned. The store count (not including liquor stores) reached a peak of 88 locations in early 2006 and fell to 42 locations before acquiring 31 Bruno's locations in 2009. The number as of November 2010 will be at 62 locations (not including liquor stores along the Gulf Coast under the SFM Liquors banner). SFM Liquors were actively marketed for sale in 2005 and early 2006 but C&S received no offer for purchase that it found acceptable and has retained ownership since then under the SFM management. Parent company and owner C&S Wholesale Grocers supplies only SFM and Rouse's Markets (Louisiana) from its Birmingham distribution center (known as Birmingham Logistics). C&S also supplies Bi-Lo stores in the Carolina's from the C&S distribution center in Mauldin, South Carolina. Bi-Lo (as of April 2010) is still in bankruptcy with plans to emerge from it in mid 2010. SFM's future is tied directly to C&S's intentions for the Southeastern U.S. A possible sale of SFM has been discussed from time to time since 2006 but has not occurred. Among possible suitors mentioned have been Kroger and AWG. SFM's comp sales have been in a steady decline since 2006 which explains the regular round of closing due to "unprofitability". Comp sales (comparing sales of existing locations open at least one year to the previous year) are used to measure the viability of existing locations. SFM (including former Bruno's assets-open and closed) currently ranks second in Alabama in the number of empty big box retail buildings (only Wal-Mart has more, but theirs are due to opening of supercenters replacing existing stores). Many of these empty locations still have either Southern Family Markets, Bruno's, or Food World signage on the buildings and street side signs.
SFM headquarters is located in part of the former Bruno's headquarters located on Lakeshore Parkway in Birmingham, Alabama. C&S has been trying to sell or lease not only the part of the campus being used by SFM but the portion used by Bruno's until fall 2008 but has not been able to find a tenant. A move from the Bruno's building was announced in 2005 but was never made. No new location was ever disclosed when the announcement was made.
C&S Wholesale Grocers has subleased portions of the warehouse space to other parties since 2008. The warehouse was over 1,000,000 sq ft (93,000 m2). of space and with the declining volume of groceries shipped from the facility each year, less space was needed to maintain the remaining business. Therefore, space was freed up for other entities to lease.