Four member-owners of Wakefern Food Corp. have been involved in sales agreements over the past month.
In an acquisition completed in early January, Glass Gardens Inc. purchased the two ShopRite units – in Newark, NJ and Bloomfield, NJ – owned by Neil Greenstein.
Additionally, Browns Super Stores has agreed to acquire Ammons Supermarkets in a Philadelphia-area transaction that is slated to close in late March of this year.
The Glass Gardens purchase will give the high-volume retailer 13 stores overall in New Jersey (nine locations) and New York (four supermarkets). The company opened its first supermarket in Rochelle Park, NJ where the company’s headquarters are based in 1955.
The history of the Greenstein family dates back to 1952 when Neil’s grandparents joined Wakefern. Until 2015, the parent company – Brookdale ShopRite – operated only the Bloomfield store. However, in 2015, after many years of planning, the retailer opened a 70,000 square foot ShopRite in an area of Newark, an urban area that had long been underserved.
In the Browns-Ammons deal, the acquisition will allow the Westville, NJ-based retailer to expand its current store base from 11 units (nine ShopRites, two Fresh Grocers) to 14. The three-store purchase will also bolster the strong market share that Browns holds in the Philadelphia area. Ammons stores are located on Aramingo Avenue and Tulip Street in Philadelphia; and in Mullica Hill, NJ (Gloucester County).
The company was founded by former Wakefern executive Larry Ammons in 2000 with a “built from the ground up” first store on Aramingo Avenue (still the company’s highest volume unit).
In 2007, Ammons opened the former Stop & Shop store in South Jersey which had originally debuted as a Super G supermarket in the late 1990s. In 2017, shortly after the introduction of the beverage sales tax in Philadelphia, Ammons opened its other Philadelphia store near the intersection of Bridge Street and Harbison Avenue.
Ammons has been a family-run company with the Ammons’ children Peter, Ben and Melissa (Bullard) currently supervising day-to-day operations.
For Browns, this deal will mark a continued expansion of their operations. Last year, the retailer acquired five-store Philadelphia-based specialty merchant Di Bruno Bros. (Wakefern purchased the trademark and portfolio of the company’s product line).
Brown’s Super Stores was started by Jeff Brown in 1988. Jeff is a fourth-generation food retailer who today serves as executive chairman. His wife Sandy is currently executive VP and a board member of Wakefern. Veteran Brown’s executive Paul Brauer is the company’s president and COO. Jeff and Sandy’s oldest son, Josh is currently CFO of the independent retailer.
No financial terms of either deal were disclosed.
