Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

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marshd1000
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Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by marshd1000 »

Now that Haggen is no more as a independent entity, I am starting this new thread. While I have not heard anything, I am assuming that at least in some locales, the name will survive. In others they could get converted back to a Safeway or Albertsons. Or some could be some "legacy" Haggen stores that become Safeways or Albertsons. It will be a interesting ride! But I am thinking that dairy might change first, as it does not rely on a contract with Supervalu or Unified or Topco. I believe that Haggen used to have their own brand of milk. But since the bankruptcy, it has been Darigold and Home Daries branded dairy. So at some point soon, we should be seeing Lucerne and Pantry Essentials!
Last edited by marshd1000 on March 14th, 2016, 3:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

I think it is worth noting that it is Cerberus who is buying the chain, not AB Acquisition, not Albertsons LLC, not Safeway, not Albertsons Cos., not New Albertsons. This leads to the question of what will happen to it next.

The first and most likely scenario is that it will all be transferred to Albertsons, who will convert them all to their names and leave the ones they don't want as dark stores. In other words, absolute game over, though how this integration is handled will be up for debate.

The second and perhaps equally likely scenario is that Albertsons will take certain stores and convert them to their names and operations, but others won't be, probably sold to other operators (Cerberus wants to make money on this after all), or take part in...

A third option may present itself in that Cerberus will try to save the chain, much like it did Albertsons LLC. Sure, store closures and sales will come, but in the end, Haggen is ultimately saved.

I'm rooting for Scenario #2, personally.
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by marshd1000 »

Here are more details about the acquisition:

http://www.oregonlive.com/window-shop/i ... tores.html

I turns out that there were six bids! I wonder who the bidders were?
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

I wonder why the other six bids were not qualified.
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I wonder why the other six bids were not qualified.
My guess is that since Haggen is unionized, they were banks that could not guarantee any stores could remain open. The unions were able to still have a say in the sale of the "core" stores, and Albertsons could submit a lowball bid and still walk away with the package.

That's my theory, at least.
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by marshd1000 »

The Haggen name will survive on the "Legacy" Haggen outlets and the one Haggen in Oak Harbor that had been Safeway. The others will transition back to their previous banners.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/lo ... 09047.html

http://www.albertsons.com/albertsons-ac ... nd-oregon/
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by arizonaguy »

marshd1000 wrote:The Haggen name will survive on the "Legacy" Haggen outlets and the one Haggen in Oak Harbor that had been Safeway. The others will transition back to their previous banners.

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/lo ... 09047.html

http://www.albertsons.com/albertsons-ac ... nd-oregon/
So they're essentially replicating the Market Street situation in DFW where they'll have a handful of stores operated by a separate division from the majority of the stores in a given area.

I can't imagine they'll keep a 15 store division indefinitely.
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by marshd1000 »

I could be wrong, but I actually CAN see them keeping this division. Other than what happened to Haggen in the past year, the brand has been a beloved brand in Northwest Washington. The legacy Haggen stores are significantly different than Albertsons and most Safeway stores. IF Haggen were to disappear, I could only see the remaining stores becoming a Safeway. But time will tell. It is also interesting that this marks the exit of the Haggen brand from Oregon. But I wonder how long it will be before we see the different Haggen brands go away? I know that in the "Legacy" Haggen stores, they had been supplied by Unified. There had been a smattering of Western Family products but there were a lot of Haggen branded products and Food Club and Top Care products. For organics, they had Full Circle. They did have their own name on the dairy products until the bankruptcy. But since then they used Dairgold and Home Dairy branded products. So I am guessing that the diary might go Lucerne soon, unless they are stuck with a contract. But with them being in bankruptcy, maybe when they emerge, they can break existing supplier contracts? While I will no longer have any Haggen stores near me, I am glad to see them survive in one form. I am especially glad for the employees that they now have closure!
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

The Florida division saw some awfully low numbers (down to I think 13 stores) before Albertsons finally packed it in and combined it with Dallas-Fort Worth to re-form the Southern division. Since Haggen is all in exclusively in Washington state now (or at least going to be), I can definitely see them combining it with the Seattle division (or moving the Seattle division to Bellingham). In any case, I think Albertsons is doing the right thing by keeping them open as a name that people respect.

Some other takeaways/questions/thoughts from the announcement:

- The "slow transition" Albertsons indicates that they probably won't close the stores to do remodels.
- The brand names are probably going to be the first to go. Remember, for United, they were one of the first to go, although United did keep a number of exclusives.
- The other stores becoming Albertsons...were they not Albertsons originally? I thought some of them were Safeway, and even if that was the case, I was under the impression that Safeway was the stronger brand.
- Friendly reminder that despite the overlap in Dallas, Market Street isn't in its own division, it's part of the 66-store United division.
- I hope that Albertsons isn't dragged down by this...it's got enough debt on it as it is, and I hope Haggen isn't an albatross that destabilizes the company.
- Until Haggen is "canonized" as part of the Albertsons family (on ALL official materials in their stores, there's a graphic showing Albertsons, Safeway, and every banner from Acme to Vons, and even including Lucky and Super Saver...though this graphic never showed Pak'n'Save or Genuardi's, even though both stores existed at merger), I'm not sure what to think.
- I wonder if Albertsons will try to position this as their answer to Main & Vine. Is that even a good idea? After all, Main & Vine never was driven out of SoCal on a rail.
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Re: Acquisition and Integration of Haggen into Albertsons

Post by klkla »

marshd1000 wrote:I could be wrong, but I actually CAN see them keeping this division.
I tend to agree with you. All the back end offices and distribution will be merged into Albertson's at some point but they will keep a small operations management focused on operating the Haggen branded stores which will have much higher margins than Albertsons/Safeway branded stores.
pseudo3d wrote:- I wonder if Albertsons will try to position this as their answer to Main & Vine. Is that even a good idea? After all, Main & Vine never was driven out of SoCal on a rail.
I'm not sure I get the analogy. Main & Vine is a one store test that's barely a month old. Haggen's failure in Southern California was under totally different circumstances. There's no indication that Albertson's wants to position the legacy Haggen stores any different than they are now. If anything I think they want to avoid changing the format on these remaining stores and risk alienating shoppers that have long been loyal to the Haggen name.
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