Any plans that were on the drawing board for the expansion of City Markets stores here would have to be shelved, at least for now, due to financial problems with the parent company Winn-Dixie.
A U.S. District Bankruptcy Judge approved the sale of 15 Winn-Dixie store leases last Wednesday, including six in North Carolina. The Jacksonville-based supermarket chain filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 21, listing its assets at $2.2 billion and liabilities at $1.9 billion.
Bruce Souder, Managing Director of Bahamas Supermarkets Ltd., a subsidiary of Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. told The Guardian the store leases would have some affect on expansion plans here.
“We have had an interest in redeveloping some of our stores but those plans have been delayed because of the problems that the parent company are having as far as getting somebody on solid footing over there to be able to say that we are making the right decision,” he said.
“Their financial problems affect us in that respect because they are the parent company. It bottlenecks those kinds of plans but as far as our day-to-day operations are and our funding is concerned, it has no impact on us.”
Bahamas Supermarkets is the parent company of City Markets in New Providence and Winn-Dixie in Grand Bahama. It has nine stores here and three in Grand Bahama.
Winn-Dixie’s Senior Director of Communications Kathy Lussier told The Guardian, as Mr Souder had indicated, that Bahamas Supermarkets operates as a separate entity from Winn-Dixie Stores. She also said City Markets maintains different lines of credit with its banks in The Bahamas.
“Financial issues at Winn-Dixie do not create the same issues for stores in The Bahamas. We have no plans to restructure our operations in The Bahamas,” she said.
“In fact, our operations there (here) continue to be profitable and we plan to go forward with plans to improve our store facilities.”
The improvement she was referring to include a new store at Cable Beach, which will replace the existing one in that area.
$18 million gained from lease
After Winn-Dixie’s 15-store leases, the Jacksonville-based Supermarket chain added about $18 million to its ledger. The Associated Press said the leases to the six stores in North Carolina were the largest purchase approved by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Jerry Funk by the Harris Teeter Inc. for $15.98 million.
Additionally, AP said a contentious closed-door hearing on the sale of a $2 million lease of a Naples, Florida store to Wal-Mart was continued until Friday.
Individual store leases sold reportedly ranged from $20,000 for a lease in Madison, Ala., sold to Star Market Inc., to $500,000 for a lease in Atlanta sold to OGA’s Enterprises.
Four of the leases were said to be purchased by shopping centres in lease termination agreements.
Apart from the store lease sales, Winn-Dixie had already planned to close about 225 unprofitable stores.
By: MINDELL SMALL, The Nassau Guardian
