Bruno's
Bruno's is a grocery store chain which once claimed more than 150 locations and employed 14,000 in its Bruno's, Food World, Big B Drugs, and Vincent's Market stores.
Joe Bruno founded the first store, called Bruno's Bros. Grocery, in 1932 with a $600 investment from his family. He operated the 800 square foot store with his brothers Angelo, Lee, and Anthony.
By 1959 the brothers had expanded the operation to 10 stores. They filed for incorporation and, over the course of the 1960s, opened 20 more stores across the state and launched the Big B Discount Drugs chain. The Food-World chain of larger discount supermarkets was launched in 1972 with capital raised from the company's first public stock offering in 1971.
Joe Bruno retired as CEO in 1977. When the company celebrated it's 50th anniversary in 1983 it had 51 grocery stores in Alabama, Tennessee and Georgia, as well as 40 Big B stores and three warehouses. It began purchasing rival Food Fair stores that year, and launched the FoodMax brand in 1984. In 1988 the company founded Vincent's Market, named for Joe's father, Vincent Bruno, who emigrated to Birmingham from Sicily in 1908.
The chain was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $1.2 billion in 1995. Three years later, with nearly $1 billion in debt, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. It came out of bankruptcy protection in 2000 and acquired 19 Delchamp's stores in January 2001.
In December 2001 it was acquired by Royal Ahold for $500 million. It was sold again, in December 2005 to Lone Star Funds, which merged the company headquarters into its Bi-Lo chain, based in South Carolina. It also sold 60 of the stores to New Hampshire's C&S Wholesale Grocers, which subsequently placed its Southern Family Markets divisional headquarters in the former Bruno's headquarters in Birmingham.
Lone Star spun Bruno's off from Bi-Lo in March 2007 and returned its headquarters to Birmingham. The company currently operates 67 stores in Alabama and north Florida. It employs 5,100, of which 3,000 are in the Birmingham metropolitan area.
References
- Goodman, Sherri C. (August 19, 2007) "Now Texas-owned, grocery chain dates to 1932, wants to recapture local loyalties." Birmingham News
External links
- Bruno's website