Representatives of Bahamas Supermarkets ﾖ the operators of City Markets and Winn-Dixie stores ﾖ are stating emphatically that the company is not on the market, despite a report that appeared in the media that potential buyers were interested in acquiring the business.
“As far as I know, and we know here locally, the company is not for sale,” Managing Director Bruce Souder told the Bahama Journal. “The fact that some people here may be interested in purchasing could very well be true, but as far as I know from our standpoint the company is not for sale.”
Another company spokesperson classified The Bahamas operation as the jewel of the parent company, Winn Dixie, which is in the process of an extensive restructuring initiative. Winn-Dixie holds a 73 percent stake in Bahamas Supermarkets, according to Mr. Souder.
Winn-Dixieﾴs, woes have been no secret. The parent company based in Jacksonville Florida has filed for bankruptcy and is in the process of reorganizing its operations.
It has divested itself of a substantial amount of stores over the last few weeks but held on to the local operation.
“People who are looking for a good investment look around for a company where part of it appears to be struggling or is in the process of restructuringﾅand they see one arm of that body that looks very healthy and they say why donﾴt I pluck that arm, that doesnﾴt mean that that arm is up for sale,” said Dianne Phillips, company spokesperson.
She classified Bahamas Supermarketsﾴ ability to deliver the right product, service, price, quality and consistency as the factors that have accounted for its success.
This year, the company won the Beyond Excellence Award for a corporation in The Bahamas and is in the process of expanding as construction has started on a new Cable Beach store.
Winn-Dixie Stores Inc was one of the many U.S. retailers with operations in the areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. Initially the company reported that as many as 43 of its 575 U.S. stores remained shut as executives conducted an assessment of the damage.
A spokesman for the company – considered one of the largest retail grocers in the United States – which filed for bankruptcy in February, said the company had no immediate comment on whether losses or costs tied to Katrina would have any bearing on its continuing push to restructure itself under bankruptcy protection, according to U.S. media reports.
An update on the company’s Web site had indicated that 33 Winn-Dixie stores remained shut in Louisiana, 9 in Mississippi and one in Alabama.
The company also said that 28 other stores in the affected states were open, running on generator power, and selling only nonperishable items.
“To them the success story of Bahamas Supermarkets must seem so trivial because they are faced with employees, with staff members, with people who have been part of the family for years and decades that they canﾴt even get in touch withﾅThey are down there in an all out community helping effort,” Ms. Phillips said.
Currently, Winn-Dixie, based in Jacksonville, Florida, operates a total of 587 stores, in the United States and the Bahamas.
The company announced in July that following a successful auction it had reached agreement to sell 102 stores to 30 purchasers, the substantial majority of which was intended to operate these locations as food and beverage stores.
These stores are part of the 326 locations that the Company previously announced it intends to sell or close in conjunction with its new “store footprint” strategy.
The aggregate purchase price in the agreements for leases and equipment at the stores was approximately $45.6 million, an increase of $6.9 million from the $38.7 million announced previously.
Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
