National grocer, cutting back on debt, sells 51 stores in region

TAMPA — Discount grocer Save a Lot recently sold its portfolio of Tampa area stores, 51 locations, to Fresh Encounter, a Save A Lot retail partner licensee.

Financial terms of the sale weren’t disclosed.

The sale, according to a statement, was part of the ongoing transition for Save A Lot, based in suburban St. Louis, in St. Ann, Mo. to become a wholesale grocer.  The sale, and several other similar deals, is also part of an effort for the company to cut debt.  

Findlay, Ohio-based Fresh Encounter will continue to operate the stores under the Save A Lot banner, the release adds. Fresh Encounter operates 61 locations in the Midwest, according to Grocery Dive, under banners including Great Scot, Community Markets, Germantown Fresh Market and Needler’s Fresh Market. The deal also and introduces Fresh Encounter to the Tampa grocery market.

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Michael Needler and the Fresh Encounter team, who have been fantastic partners, strong operators and excellent ambassadors of the Save A Lot brand,” Save A Lot CEO Kenneth McGrath says in the release. “Through the re-licensing transactions we are executing across our footprint, we believe that we will be even better positioned to continue to serve the communities in which we operate. We currently have a dedicated group of retail partners that we support and we look forward to helping other entrepreneurs own, operate and succeed in their own business.”

Save A Lot has executed seven sale transactions comprising 82 stores under a comprehensive recapitalization of the business, including those being sold to Fresh Encounter, the release states. The sale of the Tampa stores to Fresh Encounter is part of an ongoing re-licensing program, in which Save A Lot intends to transition to a wholesale model by selling more than 300 corporate-operated locations to new and existing retail partners that will continue to operate the stores under the Save A Lot banner, the release states. Save A Lot will continue to operate 21 corporate stores locally in St. Louis, where it will continue to develop and launch new innovations as a testing ground.

“The Fresh Encounter family of companies has a culture that prioritizes being positive, appreciative and resilient and we are eager to onboard the new Florida associates,” Fresh Encounter President and CEO and President Michael Needler says in the release. “Over the past several months I have toured stores in the greater Tampa market and I’m impressed with the Save A Lot team.”

Founded in 1977, Save A Lot is one of the largest discount grocery store chains in the U.S. with over 1,000 stores in 33 states and 14 wholesale distribution centers.

(This story was updated to reflect the correct headquarters of Save A Lot.)