Ukrop’s may be for sale, publication says
FILE PHOTO/TIMES-DISPATCH
Ukrop’s employed 3,363 people in 25 stores in the Richmond area as of Jan. 1.
Ukrop's Super Markets Inc. has initiated discussions with potential buyers for the 28-store chain, a regional grocery trade publication reported yesterday.
Food World reported on its Web site that family-owned Ukrop's, a Richmond-area institution for decades, had issued a prospectus "detailing vital Ukrop's store data and seeking interest in a potential sale." Food World cited multiple industry sources.
Jeff Metzger, publisher of Maryland-based Food World, declined to comment on the report yesterday.
Potential buyers responding to the prospectus included Harris Teeter, Supervalu and Netherlands-based Ahold, Food World reported.
Ukrop's did not respond to several requests for comment.
A spokeswoman for Harris Teeter would say only that it is the company's corporate policy "not to comment on rumors." A spokeswoman for Supervalu said the company does not publicly discuss market speculation.
Ahold did not respond to requests for comment.
Ukrop's employed 3,363 people in 25 stores in the Richmond area as of Jan. 1.
The Food World report came amid widespread discussion on Richmond-area blogs and online chats of the possibility of Ukrop's being sold, including reports that Harris Teeter had applied for state licenses to sell alcohol in the same number of locations that Ukrop's has stores. Few of the posts cited sources.
A spokeswoman for Harris Teeter said the North Carolina-based grocery chain had not applied for such licenses, and a spokeswoman for the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control said no such applications had been filed.
As of yesterday evening, the ABC Department Web site did not show any pending applications in the area for Harris Teeter or its parent company, Ruddick Corp.
There also were no pending alcohol-sales license applications in the name of Ukrop's, Ahold or Supervalu.
Talk of a possible Ukrop's sale to Harris Teeter has circulated for several years. In an e-mail statement in May, the company chalked up the talk to rumors.
"It seems like every year about this time the same rumors circulate," Ukrop's said in the statement.
Harris Teeter Inc. operates 181 stores in eight states including Virginia but not in the Richmond market. However, the chain has stores in Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Charlottesville and Danville.
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced in January that Harris Teeter will invest $101 million to open a food-distribution operation in King George County, creating 335 jobs.
The company employs about 21,000 people. It has headquarters in Matthews, N.C., near Charlotte.
Minnesota-based Supervalu owns and operates about 2,500 stores under several different brands and also supplies grocers, including Ukrop's. Supervalu owns Virginia Beach-based Farm Fresh Inc., which operates the Market at Tobacco Row in Richmond.
Ahold is an international group of grocery stores, with locations in the U.S. and Europe. It owns Landover, Md.-based Giant, which has about 20 stores in Northern Virginia and several in Washington.
Ukrop's was founded in 1937, when Joseph Ukrop mortgaged the family farm to open the first store in Richmond.
It expanded to dominate the Richmond grocery market and now has 28 stores -- 25 in the Richmond area and one each in Williamsburg, Fredericksburg and Roanoke.
Over its 72-year history, the company has been a major supporter of area charities and community events, including sponsoring the Monument Avenue 10K race. In September, Ukrop's reported that its Golden Gift program had distributed more than $12 million to local nonprofit organizations since 1987.
It has remained family-owned, with one of the founder's sons, Robert S. Ukrop, 62, currently serving as chairman, president and CEO of the company.
Brother James E. Ukrop, who turns 72 this month, is chairman of First Market Bank, the majority of which is owned by the grocery chain and the family. He is a former chairman of Ukrop's Super Markets.
First Market is in the process of merging with Bowling Green-based Union Bank and Trust.
Ukrop's has acknowledged some problems in recent years. The company has discussed publicly its problems gaining a foothold in the Roanoke market with the store it opened there two years ago. Slow sales forced it to close one of its two Williamsburg stores this year.
And last month, an annual survey of grocery markets showed Ukrop's no longer is the market leader in the Richmond area for the first time in more than 20 years. It lost its No. 1 spot to North Carolina-based Food Lion LLC, according to Food World.
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or
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Reader Reactions
Without having the grocery stores and the banks to worry about, the Ukrop family now can devote all of their time to keeping Richmond firmly locked in the 19th century, never to progress, never to change…
Dang am sure glad Ukrops gonna be sold. One Wunday I run outta Busch Light and din have no smokes so I hied myself to Walmart and dnag when I got to the checkout I forget ma billfold but them nice folk at Walmart said shucks, uyou jist tote them things home and next time ya’ll hereabouts jist stop and setlle up with us. W’re not like the evial Ukrops peaople who cain’t lend a hand to a customer ane are too dum to open Sunday and sell beer and wine.
You two are clueless. Ukrops does not let people take their groceries on “good faith” as a “schtick”. It’s called superior customer service look it up yankee.
And post-dating a check. If the money is not in the account dont write the check idiot!
Two perfect examples of what’s wrong with richmond!!
Tdy9, I believe you might be right about the embellished fables of ‘valued customers’ in Ukrops. My own mother couldn’t even post-date a check 2 DAYS ahead in the Chester store (Bermuda Square). She was a longtime regular in that store, spending multiple thousands since it very first opened—at least $120 every single week, I know that. But when she told the cashier, “Here you go, but this one is dated for Thursday” the cashier about had a heart attack & said “Oh no—You can’t do that here!“ The manager rushed over & said the same thing. They made her date the check for that day.
Shoot, I can post-date checks at foreign-owned convenience marts (!) but Ukrops wouldn’t let a longtime friend post-date a check 2 days. Ukrops showed its true colors that day.
Count me as yet another person who wont miss Ukrops. I worked there for a while and you wouldn’t believe some of the crap they pull. Like someone else on here said; being closed on Sundays, not selling beer, the paintings of churches in their stores, the rule against swearing—it is all image. It is a marketing ploy. One of the reasons Ukrops will never expand North is because stuff like that sells in the Bible Belt but no-one would pay a 20% markup for it in other parts of the country.
A lot of the stories that you hear about the customer service are fraudulent as well. We’ve all heard of Ukrops cashiers letting customers take their groceries on good faith if they forget their wallets, and other such stories. What a joke. Ukrops will actually set those things up—- the “customer” will be a secret shopper, a Ukrops employee posing as a shopper, and the cashier will be in on it too, and they’ll make sure actual customers see it happening in order to get people talking.
It’s all very disingenuous, even creepy. I’m not saying that other stores don’t behave dishonestly—they do, obviously. But Ukrops’ whole “shtick” is just off-putting.
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