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All Belle Foods Stores Up For Sale
July 25, 2013
As part of its ongoing bankruptcy, Belle Foods announced Wednesday that all 44 of its grocery stores — including those in Atmore and Brewton — are up for sale. The company previous announced the closing of 13 other stores, including four Food World stores in Pensacola.
Belle has agreed to sell the 44 stores because it believes the sale of the stores presents the best opportunity to maximize value for the benefit of its creditors. Bill and Jeff White, the owners of Belle, have retained the right to submit bids for the purchase of the stores.
Belle Foods and C&S Wholesale Grocers have reading an agreement for debtor-in-possession financing under which C&S has agreed to continue supplying the stores, ensuring that the stores will remain open to serve Belle’s customers. The agreement extends through at least October 4.
Belle has agreed to sell the 44 stores because it believes the sale of the stores presents the best opportunity to maximize value for the benefit of its creditors. Bill and Jeff White, the owners of Belle, have retained the right to submit bids for the purchase of the stores.
“At this point, this is the best way to serve our customers, preserve jobs for our employees and support our communities,” said Bill White, owner and president of Belle. “We expect these stores to be sold as on-going operations and will work with any new owners to see that our people remain employed. We have some of the best and most experienced grocery professionals in the south working in our stores.”
White concluded his statement by saying, “It would be great if Belle Foods were to exist in some form or fashion at the end of this process, but at this point, our focus is on our customers and teammates.”
The four Food World stores in Pensacola owed by Belle Foods are expected to closed before August 3.
Pictured: The Belle Foods store in Atmore. NorthEscambia.com file photo, click to enlarge.
Comments
8 Responses to “All Belle Foods Stores Up For Sale”
I started with Brunos 25 years ago and at that time it was a great place to work,but after the plane crash things started to go bad. Now after three defferent owners things started going down and with Rouses not getting shipments and Belle foods filling things do not look good. It was fun.
I’m in agreement with CW & gooddeal. I would love for Kroger to buy them. The locations were good but at least one in particular was very poorly managed.
There is nothing wrong with all the stores.It just the way they are managed.Locations is not the problem….
That would be very cool if Kroger would take them or even Publix
mnon is absolutely correct. Bruno’s was a holding of Ahold USA in conjunction with Bi-Lo, then sold to C&S through Lone Star Investments, and C&S split them into Southern Family Markets, and Piggly Wigglys in areas where they would not violate franchise agreements. The stores could not buy from Piggly Wiggly warehouses, though, due to licensing agreements and sales agreement with the Bruno’s warehouse in Birmingham, so they could not sell the Piggly Wiggly generic brands. C&S was selling the stores to the White family, and C&S was financing them. Now C&S again holds the reins as the primary creditor, and the White’s can bid to buy them back from the bankruptcy court. Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? Yes, the basic operating model is flawed, which is why I left the company 7 years ago, after sticking it out for 11 years. There are some long-term, very knowledgeable employees at store level, but the Birmingham, Alabama offices need to be gutted, and those salaries can be channeled back into the stores and the equipment.
I wish Kroger would buy them.
After all this is over, the White brothers and C&S will probably get a huge tax break, the employees will lose seniority, take a reduction in pay, hours, and benefits, with the White brothers and C&S owners laughing all the way to their offshore accounts as they fly there in their private jets.
So they are selling them off… What’s up with this grocery location? Was it owned by the same company before and turned into a Belle Foods? Just trying to understand why this location or franchise has had so many issues while our tried and true Piggly Wiggly and Winn Dixie are still kicking. Seems to me the next grocery owner should look into their business model.