FERNDALE, Wash. -- Brown & Cole Stores here has entered into an agreement to acquire Thrifty Foods, Burlington, Wash., a move that would more than double its Pacific Northwest retail base.
in 1994. Terms of the transaction, announced this month, were not disclosed. The deal is expected to be completed early next year, Brown & Cole reported.
Brown & Cole, with $125 million in annual sales, operates 13 stores under the Save-On-Foods and International MarketPlace banners in Washington and Oregon. Thrifty's 16 stores operate under the Thrifty, Food Pavilion and Cost Cutter banners in Washington, generating $240 million in annual volume.
The Thrifty stores range from 14,000 square feet to 68,000 square feet, and Brown & Cole's units average about 40,000 square feet. The company has not decided what banner or banners it would use on the stores and is doing market research to determine the strongest names, Sue Cole, Brown & Cole's spokeswoman, told SN last week. The stores are expected to stay open during the transition.
With the merger, Thrifty's senior executives -- Kirk Wilson, chief executive officer; Larry Ziels, senior vice president of operations; and Chris Bounds, senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer -- would become part-owners of the Brown & Cole enterprise.
Wilson would serve as chairman of the new entity, and Craig Cole, Brown & Cole's president and CEO, would hold that title at the merged company, Brown & Cole said. Jim Anderson, Brown & Cole's vice president and chief financial officer, would become senior vice president of corporate operations. Ziels and Bounds would retain their current titles.
Brown & Cole said the acquisition will bolster its buying power and operating efficiency, enabling it to offer more competitive pricing and more services. The chains' complementary locations in northwestern and central Washington also will improve market share, name recognition and distribution, and consolidation of the trade names will add more bite to advertising programs, the company said.
Though declining to say how the acquisition would be financed, Cole told SN that merger talks started this summer after Brown & Cole bought a Thrifty store in Moses Lake, Wash. The discussions focused on the chains' similarities and the benefits of joining forces, she explained.
"I couldn't be more excited about linking arms with the Thrifty team," Craig Cole said in a prepared statement. "They have unique strengths and a solid reputation for good retailing. I feel it is very important to strengthen the role of companies that are owned and based in this region."
According to Thrifty's Wilson, "The timing for a return to local ownership is perfect. Brown & Cole is the perfect match for us. The Thrifty senior management team sought this change and is actively supporting it."
