Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy

Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy
Subsidiary of SuperValu, Inc.
Industry Retail
Founded 1957
Headquarters Virginia Beach, Virginia
Number of locations
 43
Products Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, sushi bar, snacks, wine, beer
Website FarmFreshSupermarkets.com

Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy is a supermarket chain with forty-three stores, primarily in Virginia. Its headquarters are located in Virginia Beach and its largest presence is in the surrounding Norfolk/Virginia Beach (Hampton Roads) metropolitan area. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu.

History

Farm Fresh was founded by David Furman in 1957. The name 'Farm Fresh' was chosen from entries submitted by local residents. Farm Fresh merged with competitor Giant Open Air Markets in 1986 and acquired its 26 full line grocery stores and 43 of its "Tinee Giant" convenience stores.[1] After that merger, Farm Fresh added the arch in its logo that Giant Open Air used at its stores. Also, in the late 1980s, Farm Fresh purchased Lou Smith Supermarkets, which had a strong presence on the Virginia Peninsula and Gloucester areas. In 1997, Farm Fresh made local headlines due to financial problems, which led to filing of bankruptcy. In March 1998, Farm Fresh was purchased by Richfood Holdings, Inc., which also owned Shoppers Food & Pharmacy. The company would have closed but the purchase by Richfood (Farm Fresh's biggest vendor) kept the company alive. In August 1999, Richfood Holdings was purchased by SuperValu Inc. On November 4, 2009, longtime executive Gene Walters died at the age of 86. Farm Fresh president Ron Dennis retired and was replaced by Gaelo de la Fuente, vice president of retail operations support for SuperValu Inc., as of March 10, 2010.[2]

On September 11, 2012, Gaelo de la Fuente retired as President "to pursue other interests". Bill Parker, senior vice president of merchandising for Farm Fresh, took over as interim president as of September 15, 2012, and was promoted to President on March 4, 2013. Only a couple of months in his new position Bill Parker also left "pursuing other interest". In August 2013, Micky Nye, Vice President of Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, entered the position becoming the first female president of Farm Fresh.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Ticker: Vita buys Tiny Giant". Daily Press. 10 March 1989. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  2. ↑ Shapiro, Carolyn (2 March 2010). "Farm Fresh president Ron Dennis to retire Friday". pilotonline.com. The Virginian Pilot. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
  3. ↑ Shapiro, Carolyn (14 September 2013). "Farm Fresh gets another new president". Hamptonroads.com. The Virginian Pilot. Retrieved 30 May 2015.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/2/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.