Save A Lot (SAL) has taken another step in its effort to sell most of its corporately-owned stores to its independent licensees. Twenty-eight stores in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware have been acquired by two different existing SAL licensees – Save Philly Stores (owned by Shawn Rinnier), which currently operates five SAL units in Philadelphia and Leevers Supermarkets (operated by the Leevers family) which runs 17 Save A Lot stores in the Denver, CO market, as well as two other independent supermarkets, Colorado Ranch Market and Leevers Locavore (a conversion of a former Save A Lot unit).
About 15 months ago, Save A Lot, which has been struggling to maintain sales levels at its more than 300 corporately-owned stores, began a transformational plan in which it sought to convert to primarily a wholesale grocer and marketing support organization. When previous owner Canadian private equity investor Onex Corp (which acquired SAL form Supervalu in 2015) sold its declining investment last March (to other PE firms), a new board was selected and the company was given $350 million to execute the transformation.
During the past six months several deals with existing licensees have taken place including the selling of 53 former corporate stores in Florida to Fresh Encounter (the Needler family). Sources have told us that about 130 former corporate stores have been sold to date with as many as another 125 discount units at some level of negotiations. Save A Lot has also previously noted that it plans to retain corporate ownership of its 21 stores in the St. Louis area, near its headquarters.
The discounter, founded by Bill Moran in 1977, has seen a notable decline over the past five years primarily from its corporate units which once comprised about 40 percent of its total store base. It has also been maligned by many of its licensees who have criticized the merchant for its overly strict controls and poor supply chain execution. Not only have conditions deteriorated at many of its corporate entities, new competitor Lidl has impacted the discount grocery sector in the Mid-Atlantic and existing competitors Aldi, Price Rite Marketplace and Grocery Outlet have all improved or expanded their operations in the past three years.
The company has been led by Kenneth McGrath, CEO and Kevin Proctor, EVP since 2017. Both came from Lidl in Ireland in 2013 to lead Lidl’s fledgling effort in the U.S. but left the German discounter in 2015 before Lidl actually opened any U.S. stores. In recent weeks, Procter has reportedly left Save A Lot for a job at Amazon.
Shawn Rinnier, who has been involved with Save A Lot since 2010, currently operates stores in Darby and Upper Darby, PA as well as three units in Philadelphia. He also owns one Great Valu store in Philly (54th & Chester) and another in Wilmington, DE (4th & N. Adams St.).
The new stores are located in Clayton, DE; New Castle, DE; Wilmington, DE (Maryland Ave.), Brookhaven, PA; Folcroft, PA; Harrisburg, PA; Lancaster, PA; Norristown, PA; Reading, PA; York, PA; and Atlantic City, NJ.
“We’re very excited to add 11 additional stores to our organization. Each store is well positioned to make sure we can deliver a great shopping experience for our customers, and we are especially pleased to welcome the strong team of associates who have joined us in these new locations. We’ve also expanded and improved our leadership team by adding John Palmer, as director of operations, who formerly supervised Save A Lot’s corporate stores in the Philadelphia area,” said Rinnier, whose late father Mike also owned and operated several independent stores in the Delaware Valley area.
Leevers’ 17 stores are reportedly located in Ewing Township, NJ; Hamilton, NJ; Pennsauken, NJ; Cheltenham, PA and 13 stores in Philadelphia (2101 W. Lehigh Ave.; 701 W. Lehigh Ave.; E. Lehigh Ave.; Oregon Ave.; W. Dauphin St.; Aramingo Ave.; M St.; W. Alleghany Ave.; N. Broad St.; Rising Sun Ave.; Woodland Ave.; Castor Ave.: Frankford Ave.).
