AFS to Convert Albertsons to 'Fresh Market'

ELLIOT ZWIEBACH

SALT LAKE CITY — Associated Food Stores here said it plans to convert the Albertsons stores it is acquiring to a new banner, Fresh Market, though it is unlikely to complete the transitions until next spring.

The member-owned cooperative expects to formally take over the former Albertsons stores from Minneapolis-based Supervalu within the next couple of weeks, Dick King, senior vice president, told SN.

Although the deal originally included 36 Albertsons locations, Associated is buying only 34, King said. A store in Tooele, Utah, was excluded by the Federal Trade Commission, and Supervalu pulled a store in Kearns, Utah, out of the deal because the store was in need of substantial repairs, he explained.

The Fresh Market stores will operate as corporate stores in a new division, Associated Fresh Markets; its other 22 corporate stores, which operate under the names Macey’s, Dan’s, Dick’s and Lin’s, operate as part of the Associated Retail Stores division.

The new banners that will appear on the 34 stores takes Associated's corporate logo — a lower-case “a” on a red background, with a shopping cart in front of the space in the “a” — and places it inside a red apple, with the words "Fresh Market" alongside it in two shades of green, King explained.

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