Knight wrote:I thought C&S Wholesale Grocers already own the former BI-LO and Winn-Dixie distribution centers.
No. C&S 'operates' them. The employees are C&S employees, the procurement is done by C&S, but the buildings are still owned by SEG.
pseudo3d wrote:SEG's owner, Lone Star Funds, specializes in distressed assets, which suggests that at this point, they won't try to save the company beyond trying to make it more suitable for an acquisition, which is still possible. Still, seeing the remains of a nicer Winn-Dixie get bought by Albertsons and then reflagged to Safeway is better than an ugly breakup where the whole company shatters into pieces. By divesting BI-LO (like what they did to Bruno's) and the Louisiana stores, they can get enough money to fix some of the chain's remaining problems.
I don't see Lone Star having nearly enough interest in saving SEG to break it up. They may not be at the point of no return, but they are heading down that road. A LOT of work would need to be done to the stores to get them up to a saleable condition. Even Albertsons would find these below standards, and they'd have to really work to bring them up. With their current financial condition, they simply cannot afford to do so.
Any company that is set to take over any part of SEG has its work cut out for them. Only a handful of stores are under 10 years old, with some as much as 35-40. That's a lot of modernization needed, both in environmental systems and in store systems. Then there's the condition of most of the buildings...it's just too much. On the stores I've seen other companies take over, most have required massive updates and fixes just to become usable. Rouses has taken over a few stores in Louisiana. They have had to take 3 months to just add small touches and new decor. It's that bad. I've seen bad stores taken over in a week or less. These stores simply need more work to become viable.
Knight wrote:Mississippi is a polarizing market with Kroger in Jackson northward and with WInn-Dixie and Rouse's southward.
Only 11 stores remain (because one in Gulfport is in the process of closing) in Mississippi. I wouldn't call that polarizing. More like frozen.