Save-A-Lot owner will probably take a loss on struggling grocery chain

[Sherman A1]

Not long ago, Save-A-Lot was one of the supermarket industry’s rising stars, adding stores and raking in profits for its parent company.

Now, two and a half years after being sold to a Canadian private equity firm, the discount chain is struggling. Weighed down by $728 million in debt and losing market share to German-owned chains Aldi and Lidl, Save-A-Lot reportedly is for sale once again.

One analyst thinks no buyer will offer close to the $1.4 billion that parent company Onex paid in 2016. “A responsible offer would be for Onex to sell Save-A-Lot for $1 and assume half the debt,” says Burt Flickinger III, managing director of Strategic Resource Group.

Save-A-Lot was founded in Cahokia in 1977 as a hard discount grocer, meaning that it offered a limited assortment at low prices. It was sold to Wetterau, a Hazelwood-based wholesaler, in 1988, and Minneapolis-based Supervalu bought Wetterau in 1993.

https://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/save-a-lot-owner-will-probably-take-a-loss-on/article_703b627c-e87b-510b-b831-28cdab3c9e61.html