Belle Foods, which operates a grocery store in Atmore along with 56 other stores in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday.
The Birmingham-based company purchased the stores from Southern Family Markets just a year ago.

The company is seeking to reorganize, and the filing is not expected to affect the operation of stores right now.

Documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama cite a variety of factors for the filing, including higher payroll taxes in 2013 that have led to a “decline in purchases” by the stores’ customer base.

The company recently renamed its stores in Brewton and Atmore as Belle Foods, and is in the process of rebranding all of its stores.

According to the bankruptcy filing, Belle Foods owes Southern Family Markets — from whom it bought some of its stores — $28 million.