Save-A-Lot stores not affected by Supervalu struggles, store owners say

Business
By Mark Fisher
July 19, 2012
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The financial difficulties faced by Supervalu Inc. — the parent company of the national Save-A-Lot grocery chain — have had no impact on the operations of the Miami Valley’s Save-A-Lot stores because those local stores are independently owned and operated under a licensing agreement with Supervalu, two local owners said Wednesday.

Bill Price, president and owner-operator four Save-A-Lot stores — two in Middletown, and one each in Fairborn and Franklin — said Supervalu serves as a wholesaler-supplier of about 55 to 60 percent of the grocery items sold in his Save-A-Lot stores. Price said he expects Save-A-Lot — a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supervalu — to be spun off and sold by the parent company. “Save-A-Lot is their shining star,” he said.

Both Price and Todd Fitz — director of operations for three Dayton-area Save-A-Lot stores, as well as for 12 other Save-A-Lots in Columbus and Indianapolis that are also owned by Beavercreek-based Lofino Food Stores — said their stores would continue operating even if Supervalu itself went out of business. The stores would find a new grocery wholesaler-supplier and possibly would have to change the stores’ name, “but I anticipate we would stay open,” Fitz said.

Fitz said his three Dayton stores are doing well and employ about 60 people, whose jobs “are definitely not in peril.” Price said his four stores, which have about 70 employees, also are performing well. “We’re running ahead of the trend,” he said of his stores’ financial performance.

Bruce Goodman, who oversees two Save-A-Lot stores in Springfield for Houchens Industries, could not be reached.

Shares of Minnesota-based Supervalu lost more than half their value late last week after the company announced it would suspend its dividend and would “review strategic alternatives” following disappointing financial results. Supervalu plans to accelerate price reductions and cut costs by an additional $250 million over the next two years, company officials said.

But the company’s Save-A-Lot subsidary has been adding stores nationwide, including Ohio. Between January 2011 and April 2012, Save-A-Lot added 14 new stores in Ohio, generating about 308 new jobs, according to a Supervalu officials.

Supervalu also operates 69 Cub Foods stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois, but the three Cub Foods stores in the Dayton area are not part of Supervalu and are owned and operated by Lofino Food Stores.

Supervalu announced in May it would close a distribution center in Xenia after 51 years of operation, eliminating 120 jobs. The company said the plant closure and consolidation of work to a distribution plant in Indiana would be completed this fall.

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About the Author

Mark Fisher, a 1981 graduate of Ohio State University and a 1976 graduate of Beavercreek High School, is a third-generation Dayton-area resident who has worked for the Dayton Daily News since 1983. He covered higher education and K-12 education accountability issues for nearly 20 years before taking over the food and dining beat in 2006.