pseudo3d wrote:To be honest with you, if I were in charge of Albertsons, I would do a reverse merger with SuperValu for a pittance, allowing them to take their company public without an IPO and the risks associated with that, then sell off practically everything related to SuperValu. Cub Foods (the non-franchised locations) can go to Hy-Vee, giving them the market without the hazards of building new stores (plus, Cub Foods employees can keep their jobs). Their wholesale business (and associated warehouses) can go to C&S or whoever else wants them. Save-a-Lot will still be spun off but it won't be retained (maybe some DCs for them too). Hornbacher's can be sold to an independent, Shop 'n Save in St. Louis will be sold off (except for the Springfield IL stores--those become Jewel-Osco), and Farm Fresh goes to Publix.
As for Shoppers, they will be converted to Safeway systems and be converted to Safeway stores later. It wouldn't be the best ending for Shoppers, but a "quiet conversion to another brand" is better than "liquidated to best buyers" or "dying a slow death until the last store closes".
Okay, is this just the Albertsons perspective? I would like that if Shoppers became the absolute warehouse grocer it was intended to or if it extended over, say, Acme. They can really grow in the less competitive rural areas, even if they are a little out of place. Safeway just has so many locations near existing Shoppers.
wnetmacman wrote:
As for writing a book on Albertsons, I'm surprised someone hasn't done it already. The fact that they're still around and kicking for an almost Kmart-level number of screwups is frankly amazing.
Hmm... maybe there's hope for Kmart. Albertsons' thing is a little too detailed and historic, however it seems.
pseudo3d wrote:
You have to keep in mind that Supervalu is the old Albertsons. The New Albertsons is owned by Cerberus, and while the stores and ideas are the same, the folks running them are not. Kmart-style screwups have been going on for all of their existence; 50+ years. They can do just enough correctly to survive. Supervalu's issues with Shoppers, Cub and their others names are taking a major toll on their bottom line.
I suspect that if SVU is able to divest Save A Lot, their fortunes will drastically change. That could be why they are dragging their feet on the deal. I don't think they wanted to sell old Albertsons to New Albertsons; they just couldn't run it any more without the company dragging some good, storied names further into the ground, and the price was right.
SuperValu did own Cub Foods, Shoppers, and others prior to Albertsons (during the NAI days, they also owned bigg's, a hypermarket with similar floorplans to Meijer but never was able to reach critical mass). I remember reading something about how they were never able to integrate their other brands fully with Albertsons (none of them had PF&H) due to some weird financial thing when they purchased it.
And if we wanted to be pedantic, the "Old Albertsons" is actually Albertsons LLC. The way that the
split happened was that Albertsons formed a holding company called New Aloha Corporation, NAC became New Albertsons Inc., Albertsons Inc. ("Old Albertsons") became a subsidiary of NAI, Albertsons Inc. was reorganized as Albertsons LLC, most of the assets and debt went to NAI (except for the 600-odd stores in the "lesser divisions" and Super Saver), CVS bought the drug division out of LLC, LLC is sold off to AB Acquisition (the Cerberus group), and NAI was sold to SuperValu.
I'm sure Albertsons would love to have Wild Harvest, Equaline, and the others again but I have a feeling that SuperValu probably has a "you can pry them out of my cold dead hands" attitude toward them (a wholesale company's gotta have store brands after all).
If SuperValu sells or spins off Save-a-Lot, they could net a lot out of it, but then they'd be left with a wholesale business and a bunch of stores fighting a losing battle. Since it seems like SuperValu has a clear reluctance to part with Save-a-Lot, why not go the opposite direction, sell off everything
but SAL? If it was SuperValu selling off Cub and Farm Fresh for multi millions of dollars (not to mention Shoppers, which can be divided up), then it would save SuperValu, finance an expansion of SAL (which they stated is a goal of theirs), and everyone goes home happy.[/quote]
Well, that's confusing. Everything looks like Albertsons to me. And I do see why they should sell the others instead. Hmm.
pseudo3d wrote:One of the more recent articles I read talks about Gross (the CEO) and how he wants to make SuperValu back into a great wholesale company again, and I'm not sure if that plan includes their dwindling retail holdings. They mentioned how good the Marsh account was, and they are moving forward on spinning off SAL. I don't know what SVU wants to do with their retail holdings. I read Kroger might be interested in Cub Foods, but I'm not sure SuperValu would sell (partly they would be getting less out of it than what they want/Kroger would be willing to pay, partly because that would mean losing an account).
Those SVU stores weren't made to last... that's just bad. They really drove those stores into the ground this time... and that's not enough for the new competition.