Sprouts, Albertsons grocery stores could be in talks to merge
Mar 21, 2017, 5:31 AM | Updated: 11:26 am
(Yelp photos)
(Yelp photos)
PHOENIX — The Phoenix-based grocer Sprouts Farmers Market has been in talks to merge with Albertsons, according to Bloomberg Business.
The talks included taking Sprouts private and adding it to Albertsons’ portfolio, according to Bloomberg Business.
Albertsons is owned and operated by Cerberus Capital Management, which already has numerous grocery stores and the Safeway brand under its belt.
The publication cited “people with knowledge of the matter,” who claimed that the talks “took place in recent weeks, are at an early stage and may not lead to a deal.”
The news of a merger comes as a surprise to most of the organic grocer’s dedicated shoppers. In January, Sprouts was projected to open up as many as 36 new locations nationwide throughout 2017, with one located in Arizona.
But, according to Bloomberg Business, “grocery stores have been battered by food deflation over the last year, forcing them to compete more aggressively over prices.”
An example of the industry’s dwindling can be seen through Kroger, Co. The latest grocery chain in the nation reported “negative same-store sales, excluding fuel, for the first time in more than a decade in the fourth quarter.”
