Southern grocery chain interested in buying Lucky’s stores

NIWOT — Southeastern Grocers Inc., which operates grocery store brands in the South such as Winn-Dixie and Bi-Lo, joins Publix and Aldi in the Lucky’s Market store sell-off sweepstakes.

“Southeastern Grocers has expressed interest in acquiring multiple Lucky’s Market locations across the state of Florida,” SEG senior corporate communications manager Joe Caldwell told BizWest in an email.

The company has not specified which of the 20 Florida Lucky’s locations it is targeting. 

In a slew of bankruptcy cases filed Monday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware, Lucky’s said it has signed an agreement to sell six Florida store locations to German grocer Aldi. The company also announced plans to sell five other locations to Publix Super Markets Inc.

Lucky’s announced last week that it would close 32 of its 39 locations, including in Longmont and south Boulder. Seven stores, the company said, would remain open. Among those, which court documents refer to as “operating stores,” are north Boulder and Fort Collins.

However, court documents indicate that Lucky’s intends to sell off those operating stores.

Lucky’s is “finalizing the terms of a sale of the operating stores, which will be subject to a bidding procedures motion and approval by the court as well,” according to a bankruptcy filing document

Lucky’s Market amassed debt of more than $301 million to grocery giant Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) in the roughly four years since Kroger invested in the company.

When deciding which store locations to close and/or sell to the likes of Aldi, SEG and Publix, Lucky’s leaders considered “current occupancy costs, historical store profitability, recent and projected sales trends, specific circumstances related to a store’s performance, current liquidity, and whether any firm offer for such store was obtained or likely available from third parties,” court documents say. If the firm opted not to close the 32 stores it has identified, those stores would collectively generate approximately $30 million in operating losses this year alone. 

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