BI-LO (United States)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
This article is about the southeastern United States supermarket chain. For other
uses, see BI-LO.

BI-LO

Type Private

Industry Grocery store

Founded 1961 (59 years ago)

Headquarters Jacksonville, Florida, United States

Number of 107
locations

Area served Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina

Key people Anthony Hucker (President and CEO)

Products Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general

grocery, meat, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor

Number of About 13,000

employees
 Parent Southeastern Grocers

Website www.bi-lo.com

BI-LO is an American supermarket chain owned by Southeastern Grocers,

headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. As of April 2020, the company operates
107 supermarkets under the BI-LO brand in South Carolina (83
stores), Georgia (14 stores) and North Carolina (10 stores).[1] The BI-LO
headquarters were previously located in Mauldin, South Carolina.[2][3]

Contents

 1History
o 1.12018 Bankruptcy
o 1.2Elimination of the BI-LO banner
 2Acquisition of Winn-Dixie
 3Slogans
 4Private labels
 5References
 6External links

History[edit]
In 1961, Frank Outlaw, a former Winn-Dixie executive, bought four Greenville, S.C.
grocery stores from the chain Wrenn and Syracuse, to create the Wrenn & Outlaw
chain. The company was officially named BI-LO in 1963 after Outlaw conducted an
employee store-naming contest to develop the "brand." His secretary, Edna
Plumblee, won the contest by submitting the name "BI-LO."

BI-LO was sold to Ahold, a Dutch retail food conglomerate, in 1977. In 1994, Ahold
purchased Red Food Stores, Inc. and merged its locations (around 55 of them) in
Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee into BI-LO the following year. [4][5] In 2001, Ahold
purchased the Birmingham, Alabama based Bruno's Supermarkets chain and
combined its operations with BI-LO.
In 1998, the company sponsored the construction of the BI-LO Center, now named
the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
In June 2001, BI-LO debuted their discount grocery format, FoodSmart in Camden,
South Carolina. A month later, BI-LO purchased eight Harris Teeter grocery stores
in South Carolina and converted those stores to either BI-LO or the FoodSmart
formats.[6]
In 2003, BI-LO invested in redesigning its store layout to attract high end
customers. The result was the new Super BI-LO concept of a larger store layout
featuring a greater selection of healthier foods, specialty foods, and organic foods.
Since then the company has opened new Super BI-LO branded stores as well as
remodeled older stores in affluent neighborhoods. [7]
In 2005, Ahold sold BI-LO/Bruno's to Lone Star Funds.[8] In order to concentrate on
renovating older stores, building new ones, and investing in newer information
technology, the new owners sold off 104 BI-LO, FoodSmart, Bruno's, Food Fair,
and Food World stores in areas where the chain did not have significant market
penetration. They also sold off three BI-LO/Bruno's distribution centers to grocery
wholesaler, C&S Wholesale Grocers who converted some of the stores
to Southern Family Markets.[9][10] Included in the sell-off were all stores in the
Knoxville, TN, area which nearly all were immediately occupied by Food
City stores. As of 2010, one location in the area has not been leased to any
business in five years, in part due to Food City already owning a former Winn-
Dixie location just a short walk away.
On March 21, 2007, Lone Star Funds announced the corporate spin-off of the 67
Bruno's Supermarkets and Food World stores from BI-LO LLC into a separate
company to be based out of Birmingham.[11] On April 16, 2007, Lone Star
announced the 230-store BI-LO chain was up for sale. Soon after, C&S announced
that it was closing the Chattanooga distribution center that served the BI-LOs in the
Chattanooga area and portions of North Georgia. [12]
On March 23, 2009, the company announced that it had filed Chapter 11
bankruptcy with the intent to use the court-supervised process to address "an
upcoming debt maturity." The move was largely due to the post-2008 crash and the
resultant credit crisis. The company said to expect its stores and regular operations
to continue to operate as usual during the process. The company secured a $100
million loan from GE Capital in order to continue paying wages, salaries, benefits,
suppliers, and vendors.[13] In October 2009, Delhaize Group, headquartered
in Belgium and owner of competing chain Food Lion, announced that it entered a
preliminary, non-binding agreement to purchase $425 million worth of assets from
the chain.[14] Shortly after, in November 2009, the company filed plans with the U.S.
Bankruptcy Court to restructure, with parent company Lone Star Funds providing a
$350 million cash infusion, and Delhaize Group and Food Lion left out of the plans.
Lone Star Funds said that it was possible that BI-LO could emerge from
bankruptcy in the first quarter of 2010.[15]
On May 12, 2010, the company emerged from bankruptcy.[16][17] BI-LO, ranked
by Supermarket News in the Top 75 Retailers, remains under ownership of Lone
Star Funds after restructuring.[17][18] BI-LO was reportedly put up for sale in August
2010; Kroger and Publix were said to be interested in acquiring the chain, [19] but
nothing developed from these rumors.
In September 2013, BI-LO agreed to buy 22 Piggly Wiggly stores in South Carolina
and Georgia from Piggly Wiggly Carolina. The following day, BI-LO agreed to sell
seven BI-LO locations in the Charlotte, North Carolina region to Publix. [20][21]
In July 2015, Southeastern Grocers announced the sale of its 21 BI-LO locations in
the Chattanooga market as well as eight BI-LO locations in Northern Georgia to K-
VA-T Food Stores, which would rebrand the stores under its Food City banner. The
two companies said that stores would begin transitioning August 30 and would be
completed by October 5, 2015. Southeastern Grocers was expected to use
proceeds from the deal to reduce debt. This sale ended BI-LO's presence in the
Tennessee market.[22]
In May 2017, Southeastern Grocers announced the closing of six BI-LO stores in
North Carolina and South Carolina as part of a corporate-wide closure of 20
locations along with the elimination of some department lead roles at stores.
[23]
 Later that same month, BI-LO announced the closings of three additional stores
in Newton, North Carolina and Florence and Irmo, South Carolina. [24][25][26]
In February 2019, Southeastern Grocers announced plans to close 22 locations.
This round of closures included 13 BI-LO locations in Georgia, North Carolina, and
South Carolina.[27]
2018 Bankruptcy[edit]
On March 15, 2018, Southeastern Grocers announced they would file a plan of
reorganization under Chapter 11 by the end of March. According to the company,
the restructuring would decrease overall debt levels by over $500 million. Under
this plan, 22 BI-LO stores would close along with an additional 72 stores across the
Harveys, Fresco y Más, and Winn-Dixie brands.[28][29]
On March 28, 2018, Southeastern agreed to sell three BI-LO locations in South
Carolina along with three Harveys locations in Georgia to three independent Piggly
Wiggly store owners. The deals are in conjunction with the restructuring support
agreement revealed by Southeastern Grocers.[30] On April 27, 2018, Food
Lion announced plans to acquire four BI-LO locations in Florence, Myrtle
Beach, Surfside Beach, and Columbia, South Carolina.[31] On April 30, 2018, Publix
announced they would acquire the lease, fixtures, equipment, permits, and
licenses for the Seneca, South Carolina BI-LO location slated to close as part of
the original restructuring plan.[32] Two of the BI-LO locations originally closed as part
of the bankruptcy reorganization in April 2018, Ladson and Mullins, South Carolina,
were acquired by another independent Piggly Wiggly owner and would be
reopened in June 2018.[33]
In May 2018, Southeastern Grocers restructuring plan was confirmed by a U.S.
Bankruptcy judge in Delaware. At the end of that month, Southeastern Grocers
announced that it had completed its financial restructuring and was emerging from
bankruptcy. As part of the restructuring, $522 million in debt was exchanged for
equity in Southeastern Grocers, though it was not announced who was receiving
the equity shares. Southeastern Grocers exited bankruptcy with 575 stores in
seven states, down from 704 locations. They also announced a planned remodels
of 100 stores in 2018.[34]
Elimination of the BI-LO banner[edit]
On June 9, 2020, Southeastern announced the decision to no longer operate
stores under the BI-LO banner. As part of an effort to reach that goal, Southeastern
reached an agreement to sell 62 stores, including 46 BI-LO and 16 Harveys
Supermarkets, to Ahold Delhaize subsidiary Food Lion. As part of the agreement,
they will also be transitioning their Mauldin, South Carolina distribution center over
to Ahold Delhaize USA Distribution, LLC. Both of these are expected to close in the
first half of 2021, at which point the 62 stores will transition to the Food Lion
banner.
In addition, as part of the same announcement, Southeastern announced they will
be divesting the assets of 57 of the in-store pharmacies it operates under the BI-
LO and Harveys Supermarket banners to CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens. These
locations include all of the company's BI-LO pharmacies and nine Harveys
Supermarket pharmacies in Georgia. The transition is expected to begin within two
weeks of the press release date. [35]
As of June 9, 2020, plans for the remaining BI-LO stores have yet to be
announced.
On September 1, 2020, it was announced that Southeastern Grocers was selling
20 BI-LO stores in South Carolina and Georgia to Alex Lee, Inc who would rebrand
the stores as KJ'S Market IGA and Lowes Foods. In the same announcement, 2
additional BI-LO and one Harvey's Supermarket location in South Carolina would
be sold to independent operator B&T Foods. Following the sale, BI-LO will have 39
stores remaining in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina [36]

Acquisition of Winn-Dixie[edit]
On December 19, 2011 it was announced that BI-LO and Winn-Dixie would merge
to create an organization with some 690 grocery stores and 63,000 employees in
eight states throughout the southeastern United States.[37] BI-LO will purchase
Winn-Dixie for $530 million, and operate Winn-Dixie as a subsidiary with its stores
maintaining the Winn-Dixie name. It was later announced that the merged
company would be based at Winn-Dixie's former headquarters in Jacksonville,
Florida.[38] In early 2013, BI-LO phased out its own private label soft drinks in its BI-
LO stores in favor of the "Chek" brand used by Winn-Dixie.

Slogans[edit]
 "When You BI-LO, You Get More Than Low Prices": prior to 1990
  "Why Pay More...": 1990-early 2000s
 "The Name Fits.": 2007-2010
 "Savings without sacrifice.": 2010-2015
 "Proudly serving the Southeast since 1961.": 2015–present

Private labels[edit]
Throughout late 2004 and 2005, the company gradually phased out its private label
"BI-LO" brand for its store products and replaced them with new packaging and a
new name, "Southern Home", which began also being offered at Harveys
Supermarkets locations after Southeastern Grocers' acquisition of the chain from
Delhaize. In the late 2000s, the chain started offering the budget-conscious Clear
Value brand on select products, supplied by Topco. Beginning in 2017, the
Southern Home banner used for private-label products began to be phased out for
a tiered brand entitled SE Grocers, which will be the private label brand used at all
Southeastern Grocers owned stores, including Winn-Dixie (whose namesake
private label brand is being phased out). Currently, BI-LO offers the following
private label products:
SE Grocers Essentials, a budget-priced brand on staple items
SE Grocers a mid-market private label brand equivalent to popular, national brands
on everyday items
SE Grocers Naturally Better', a natural, organic, and health conscious brand
SE Grocers Prestige, a higher end line offering more gourmet, exclusive, and
health conscious items
Chek, a soda brand
TopCare, the company's health and beauty aid line
Whiskers & Tails, pet food and supplies