E.W. JAMES ACQUIRES 10 WINN-DIXIE STORES

MARK HAMSTRA

UNION CITY, Tenn. -- E.W. James & Sons here said it has acquired 10 former Winn-Dixie supermarkets in Kentucky and has begun converting them to the E.W. James & Sons banner.

Terms of the acquisition, which was negotiated on behalf of E.W. James by its wholesaler, Associated Wholesale Grocers, Kansas City, Kan., were not disclosed.

Lee Ann James, president of E.W. James and the granddaughter of the privately owned company's founder, said the company expects to have all of the stores converted soon.

"We're in the thick of it -- we're converting two stores every two days," she told SN last week.

E.W. James operates 17 traditional E.W. James & Sons supermarkets and seven Save-A-Lot discount supermarkets in Arkansas, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. The newly acquired stores, at 40,000 square feet or more, are significantly larger than the 22,000-square-foot stores E.W. James typically operates. Located in the Bowling Green and Lexington areas, the new stores also operate in larger markets, James said.

All the acquired stores are within about a four-and-a-half-hour drive from E.W. James' headquarters here, but none compete directly with the company's other outlets, according to James. They will be supplied from AWG's Nashville, Tenn., warehouse.

Competition in those parts of Kentucky includes Kroger, Cincinnati; Wal-Mart Stores, Bentonville, Ark.; and Houchens Markets, Bowling Green.

E.W. James elevated one of its longtime store managers, Jimmy Winchester, to be the district manager for the acquired stores. James said the company planned to retain all of the Winn-Dixie stores' service departments, including pharmacies. E.W. James currently has pharmacies in four locations.

The acquisition was part of a package of about 32 Winn-Dixie stores in the region that AWG negotiated to acquire on behalf of its customers, as reported in the Oct. 18 issue of SN. Buehler Foods, Jasper, Ind., acquired 16 of those outlets. The rest were sold piecemeal to other local operators, James said.

The stores were among the 156 supermarkets Winn-Dixie Stores, Jacksonville, Fla., previously said it planned to sell or close as part of a restructuring effort.