By By Adam Prestridge
If you traveled down Lindberg Avenue this week, you may have noticed some big changes occurring at Food Fair.
Monday morning, workers began removing the store's front building sign in preparation for the store's total name change.
BI-LO, LLC, parent company of BI-LO, LLC and Bruno's Supermarkets Inc. made its final move in its long-term growth strategy, which is directed at strengthening competitive position in core markets in May. The newly transformed company is aiming to become the leading independent food retailer in the Southeast.
BI-LO/Bruno's will focus its efforts and financial resources on 310 stores in core markets across the region. In doing so, the new company will be giving current stores facelifts, constructing new stores, investing in technology and encouraging marketing efforts in these core markets.
As part of the company's strategy, it also announced in May that Southern Family Markets Acquisition (SFMA), LLC, an affiliate of C&S, has agreed to purchase 104 of the current BI-LO and Bruno's stores, Atmore's Food Fair being one of them.
According to officials, new marketing materials will begin replacing old Food Fair materials this week and continue throughout the next several weeks. All preprinted materials such as sales flyers will be distributed this week.
As for the employees of Atmore Food Fair, BI-LO/Bruno's is pleased that SFMA plans to operate the majority of the stores and will offer positions to all the associates working in those stores at the time the ownership changes.