Shaw's Supermarkets

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Shaw's, along with sister store, Star Market, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu. The company is presently the second largest grocery group in the northeast United States. The company is based in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and employs roughly 30,000 associates across Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

Shaw's was acquired by Albertsons in 2004, which acquired the chain from J Sainsbury plc for $2.5 billion. In 1999, Shaw's acquired the Star Market chain of supermarkets. Star Market was formerly owned by Investcorp who acquired Star Market 1994 from American Stores Company. American Stores acquired Star Market in 1984 as part of the hostile takeover of The Jewel Companies, Inc. Jewel acquired Star Market in 1961.

History

Beginning

In the late 1850s, George C. Shaw opened a small teashop in Portland, ME. Meanwhile, Maynard A. Davis established a group of small downtown grocery stores in the Brockton and New Bedford areas called Brockton Public Market or BPM. In 1919, Mr. Davis purchased George C. Shaw Company and made it a subsidiary of BPM.

Expansion

As George C. Shaw and BPM stores continued to grow, it was decided that a central grocery warehouse would be needed for the future growth of the two companies. In 1961, a warehouse in Brockton, MA was purchased.

By 1965, George C. Shaw had begun to move into other areas of the state and into Northern Massachusetts and New Hampshire. This expansion, combined with BPM's growth in volume in Southern Massachusetts moved the companies to build a distribution center in East Bridgewater, MA in 1972. In the 1980's a new warehouse was built in Wells, ME and in January 1991 Shaw's opened a distribution facility for perishable food items in Methuen, MA.

In 1978, BPM stores in Massachusetts changed their names to Shaw's Supermarkets, Inc. to maximize advertising. It was the first step in the contemplated merger of the two companies.

In November 1983 J Sainsbury plc, then the UK's largest supermarket group, purchased 21% of Shaw's outstanding stock. In June of 1987, Sainsbury's acquired controlling interest.

The Acquisitions

Sainsbury acquired stores from four other New England food retailers: Iandoli's (1987), the Edwards Food stores, Cerrentani's (1993) and the Star Market Company.

In 1995, Shaws entered the State of Connecticut. It started with five brand new stores and then in 1996 Sainsbury purchased twelve former Edwards Supermarkets and two future sites from Royal Ahold.

The largest supermarket chain to join the Shaw's family is the Star Market Company which was acquired in 1999. This strengthened Shaw's position as the second largest supermarket company in New England. Like Shaw's, the Star Market Company had humble beginnings and a long line of "firsts" in the supermarket industry. Star was the first New England supermarket company to have air conditioned store, touch method of ringing registers, in-store check verification, refrigerated cooked foods, self-service wrapped meats and packaged produce.

Sainsbury, Albertsons and Supervalu sale

In 2004, J Sainsbury sold Shaw's to Albertsons for $2.48 billion. On June 2, 2006, a partnership of Supervalu, CVS Corporation, and several investment firms including Cerberus Capital acquired Albertsons with the intent to divy up the parts. Supervalu received what is generally thought of as the best-performing assets, which included Shaw's and Star Market, along with other well-regarded regional chains such as Acme Markets (Philadelphia) and Jewel and Jewel-Osco (Chicagoland).

Sources

The Shaw's Supermarket's history comes from the most recent version of the Shaw's Associate Handbook.

External links

[shaws.com]