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BIG RED CONFIDENTIAL — OWNERS, MANAGERS: PENDING AFFILIATED SALE WON’T IMPACT LOCAL BIG RED STORES

By Amy Riggin/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Friday, May 1, 2009 10:17 AM CDT

While Affiliated Foods Southwest of Little Rock remains tight-lipped about its plans for a sale or merger, owners and managers of four local Big Red stores said they are not members of the cooperative and thus won’t be impacted.

Affiliated said in a statement Wednesday that whatever its management decides to do should be done “by next week,” and details will be made public at that time.

“We are under confidentiality agreements at the moment with those companies we are negotiating with and cannot disclose their identity,” said David Hendrix of Bryant, Affiliated’s chair.

Proposals have been made by “other wholesale food distributors,” the company said.

Summerwood

Hendrix is co-owner of Summerwood Partners LLC, which operates a chain of Big Red stores, none of which are in Pine Bluff.

Hussain Farista of Pine Bluff owns Big Red stores located at 3319 S. Olive St. and 2317 W. 28th Ave. Farista said Thursday that he is not supplied by Affiliated.

A third Big Red, located at 1802 E. Harding Ave., was recently purchased by Sameera Bubhwani, the store manager said. Bubhwani was contacted at BP Food Mart in Benton, another store she owns, and said her stores are supplied by Harrison Co. Inc. of Bossier City, La.

The Big Red Travel Plaza at 8110 Sheridan Road in White Hall, according to assistant manager Mary Wilson, is locally owned by Ben Jones.

“Our supplies come from Douglas [Companies Inc.] and Ben E. Keith [Co.],” Wilson said.

Steve Horton, regional manager of Food King and Sav-U-Mor in Pine Bluff, said Wednesday that those two stores, which are supplied by Affiliated, are expected to close next week. Horton said Robert Hudson, the owner of the two stores and others in the state, is “retiring from the grocery business.”

Budget Saver manager Les Ferguson said Wednesday that he was not aware of any plans to close that store, which is owned by Supermarket Investors Inc. of Little Rock. Affiliated is its parent company.

However, Budget Saver’s pharmacy closed Monday, an employee said.

Affiliated indicated Wednesday that its board had “made great strides” over the past six weeks to reorganize after having cash flow problems, which were made public in March. Those problems included a temporary termination of its credit line by U.S. Bank.

The company said one of the main causes of its “liquidity issue” was capital that was tied up in supermarkets in its cooperative that were being sold. Affiliated said it has “intensified” efforts to sell off the remaining stores.

In addition, the company hired Keystone Consulting of Chicago to help with a company reorganization that has resulted in naming a new president. The company has not named a new chief executive officer after removing former President and CEO John R. Mills.

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