Sunflower Farmers Market

Last updated
Sunflower Farmers Market
TypePrivate
Founded2002
Headquarters Boulder, CO, U.S. and Phoenix, AZ, U.S.
Number of locations
35
Area served
 Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah
Key people
Chris Sherrell, President & CEO [1] Press Release
ProductsFood, natural food, organic food, frozen foods, grocery items, private-label items, natural living, [2] bath and body care items, vitamins and supplements
Website www.sunflowermarkets.com
www.facebook.com/sunflowermkt

Sunflower Farmers Market was an American chain of full-service grocery stores headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, which emphasized value-priced natural and organic products. Sunflower opened its first store in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 2002. In June 2013, Sunflower Farmers Market was operating 38 grocery stores located in eight Southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Oklahoma [3] and Texas (where it formerly operated as Newflower Farmers Market). In June 2012, Sunflower merged with Sprouts Farmers Markets.

Contents

History

Libby Cook, founder of Sunflower Farmers Market, had been involved in the natural and organic food business for 25 years. She was President and CEO from 2002 to 2005. In 2006 Mike Gilliland became CEO. He, along with Cook co-founded Wild Oats Markets [4] [5] and together grew the company from a single store in Boulder, Colorado to a billion-dollar publicly traded enterprise with 115 stores throughout the US and Canada. [6]

In 2002, Cook founded Sunflower Farmers Market, which operates natural foods supermarkets throughout the southwestern United States; she served as the company's Chief Executive Officer. [4] until 2006. In 2007, KMCP Advisors invested $30 million in Convertible Preferred Stock. The Company used the proceeds to fund the opening of new stores. The managers of KMCP Advisors, Timothy Kelleher and Douglas Meltzer, are also the founders of Silver Canyon Group, a private equity firm focused on growth equity based in San Diego, CA. In February 2011, Gilliland resigned [1] after being arrested on felony charges; Chris Sherrell, Sunflower's president at the time, was subsequently named acting CEO. [1] He was appointed permanent CEO three months later. [7] Under the leadership of Sherrel and KMCP Advisors, the Company continued to flourish.

Merger

In March 2012, Sunflower Farmers Market merged with Sprouts Farmers Market. [8] Tim Kelleher of KMCP Advisors continued his Board role in Sprouts.

Products

Sunflower Farmers Market aims to develop the value segment of the natural and organic foods retailing industry. [9] Sunflower's motto is "Serious Food…Silly Prices." Sunflower offers produce, meat, fish, bulk foods and coffee, deli foods, natural bath and body care items, vitamins and supplements [5] and, in some locations, beer and wine.

Sunflower Farmers Market endeavors to keep prices low by keeping their overhead low, foregoing certain light fixtures and high rents. [10] Sunflower also buys big, purchasing almost everything by the pallet or truckload, and sourcing directly, [10] [11] and paying vendors quickly. They don't charge vendors "slotting allowances" or shelf-space fees, and they negotiate on prices. [12]

Green Initiatives

Awards and recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grocery store</span> Retail store that primarily sells food and other household supplies

A grocery store (AE), grocery shop (BE) or simply grocery is a foodservice retail store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, and is not used to refer to other types of stores that sell groceries. In the UK, shops that sell food are distinguished as grocers or grocery shops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kroger</span> American retail company

The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save-A-Lot</span> American retail and grocery company

Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd. is an American discount supermarket chain store headquartered in St. Ann, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It has about 900 independently owned and operated stores across 32 states in the United States with over $4 billion in annual sales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hy-Vee</span> American supermarket chain

Hy-Vee, Inc. is an employee-owned chain of supermarkets in the Midwestern and Southern United States, with more than 280 locations in Iowa, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wisconsin, with stores planned in Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Hy-Vee was founded in 1930 by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in a small brick building known as the Beaconsfield Supply Store, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Meijer</span> American hypermarket chain

Meijer Inc. is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwestern United States. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 as a supermarket chain, Meijer is credited with pioneering the modern supercenter concept in 1962. About half of the company's 259 stores are located in Michigan; the others are in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The chain is ranked by Forbes as the 14th-largest private company in the United States, and is the country's 21st-largest retailer by revenue as of 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Market (Texas)</span> American gourmet grocery store chain in Texas

Central Market is an American gourmet grocery store chain owned by H-E-B Grocery Company based in San Antonio, Texas. Most locations also have a full-service kitchen, offer cooking and wine classes in their culinary school, and offer catering services. The chain has ten locations, all in Texas. Central Market was named "Outstanding Specialty Food Retailer" by Specialty Food Magazine and the National Association for Specialty Food Trade.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wakefern Food Corporation</span> Cooperative group of supermarkets in the United States

Wakefern Food Corporation is an American company that was founded in 1946 and is based in Keasbey, New Jersey. It is the largest retailers' cooperative group of supermarkets and the fourth-largest cooperative of any kind in the United States. Wakefern was the largest private employer in New Jersey in 2018, with 40,200 employees. As of 2022, Wakefern has fifty member companies who own and operate 365 supermarkets, under the ShopRite, Price Rite Marketplace, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Market, Gourmet Garage, and Fairway Market brands in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Virginia.

SuperValu, Inc., was an American wholesaler and retailer of grocery products. The company, formerly headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had been in business since 1926. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods (UNFI).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">H-E-B</span> American supermarket chain

H-E-B Grocery Company, LP, is an American privately held supermarket chain based in San Antonio, Texas, with more than 380 stores throughout the U.S. state of Texas and northeast Mexico. The company also operates Central Market, an upscale organic and fine foods retailer. As of 2022, the company had a total revenue of US$38.9 billion. H-E-B ranked number 6 on Forbes's 2022 list of "America's Largest Private Companies". H-E-B was named Retailer of the Year in 2010 by Progressive Grocer. Supermarket News ranks H-E-B 13th on the list of "Top 75 North American Food Retailers" by sales. Based on 2019 revenues, H-E-B is the 19th-largest retailer in the United States. It donates 5% of pretax profits to charity. The official mascot of H-E-B is named H-E-Buddy, an anthropomorphic brown grocery bag, with multiple grocery items emerging from the top.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wild Oats Markets</span>

Wild Oats Marketplace is a producer of natural and organic food distributed through partnerships in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Soopers</span> Colorado supermarket chain

King Soopers is an American supermarket chain located in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. It started as its own brand, and is now a subsidiary of Kroger. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Save Mart Supermarkets</span> American grocery store company

The Save Mart Companies is an American grocery store operator founded and headquartered in Modesto, California. It owns and operates stores under the names of Save Mart, Lucky, Lucky California, FoodMaxx, and Maxx Value Foods. The stores are located in northern and central California and northern Nevada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Henry's Farmers Market</span> Former grocery retailer brand name

Henry's Farmers Market was a grocery retailer that operated in California. In 2011, it started becoming part of the Sprouts Farmers Market chain with a full acquisition taking place by early- to mid-2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sprouts Farmers Market</span> American supermarket chain

Sprouts Farmers Market, Inc., is a supermarket chain headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. The grocer offers a wide selection of natural and organic foods, including fresh produce, bulk foods, vitamins and supplements, packaged groceries, meat, poultry, seafood, deli, baked goods, dairy products, frozen foods, natural body care, and household items. Sprouts employs 35,000 workers and operates more than 380 stores in 23 states.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smart & Final</span> Chain of warehouse-style food and supply stores

Smart & Final is a chain of warehouse-style food and supply stores based in Commerce, California, which developed through a series of mergers and expansions. The oldest of the combined companies, Hellman-Haas Grocery, was founded in 1871 in Los Angeles. The company operates over 250 stores in the Western United States and 15 in northwestern Mexico.

Albeco, Inc., doing business as Mollie Stone's Markets, operates a small chain of nine supermarkets, located in the San Francisco Bay Area. Established in 1986 by Mike Stone and Dave Bennett, it has stores in the cities of Burlingame, Greenbrae, Palo Alto, San Bruno, San Mateo and Sausalito, and the Castro, Pacific Heights, and Twin Peaks neighborhoods of San Francisco.

Rouses Markets are a chain of grocery supermarkets in the U.S. states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi with more than 6,500 employees.

Love Grown Foods is a natural food company that manufactures a line of all natural breakfast foods. The company was founded in January 2008 by Maddy D’Amato and Alex Hasulak after developing their product line as undergraduate students at the University of Denver. The company markets its products in grocery stores across The United States and Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Justin's</span> American Candy

Justin's is an American brand of natural and organic nut butters and peanut butter cups. The Boulder-based company manufactures and markets jars and single-serve squeeze packs of nut butter, along with various kinds of organic peanut butter cups. Justin's peanut butter cups are USDA-certified organic and use Rainforest Alliance Certified cocoa. Both the peanut butter cups and nut butters are distributed through stores such as Whole Foods Market, Sprouts Farmers Market, Starbucks, and Target in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucky's Market</span> Colorado supermarket

Lucky's Market is a brand of supermarkets that are being used by two independent and unrelated regional supermarket chains, LM Acquisition Co. LLC in Colorado and Lucky's Market Ohio in Ohio.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Chris Sherrell Named Acting Chief Executive Officer of Sunflower Farmers Markets, Following Resignation by Michael C. Gilliland as Chairman and CEO". February 12, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2011.
  2. ↑ Gentry, Connie; Field, Katherine; Wilson, Marianne. "40 Under 40." 31 Dec. 2008. Chain Store Age. http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/forty-under-40-small-chains-flourish
  3. 1 2 Tarnowski, Joseph. "Sunflower Farmers Market to Open First Oklahoma Location," 18 April 2011. Progressive Grocer. http://www.progressivegrocer.com/top-stories/headlines/organic/id32540/sunflower-farmers-market-to-open-first-oklahoma-location/
  4. 1 2 Taylor, Mike. "CEO of the Year: Mike Gilliland." ColoradoBiz Magazine. 12 Dec. 2010. http://www.cobizmag.com/articles/ceo-of-the-year-mike-gilliland/
  5. 1 2 Fox Business News http://video.foxbusiness.com/
  6. ↑ Lammers, Lesley. "Sunflower Farmers Market to Expand in California." 20 Dec. 2010. Triple Pundit. http://www.triplepundit.com/2010/12/sunflower-farmers-market-expand-california/
  7. ↑ "Acting CEO Takes Helm at Sunflower Farmers Market." Chain Store Age. 9 May 2011. http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/acting-ceo-takes-helm-sunflower-farmers-market/
  8. ↑ "Sprouts acquires Sunflower Farmers Market". March 9, 2012. Retrieved June 19, 2012.
  9. ↑ Wild Man Still Challenging Whole Foods. CNN Money." 27 Dec. 2007. http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2007/12/27/bg.sunflower.cnnmoney.cnnmoney/
  10. 1 2 "Food for Thought." Chain Store Age. 3 Nov. 2010. http://www.chainstoreage.com/article/food-thought
  11. ↑ "Q & A with Mike Gilliland." 5 Jan. 2009. http://newhope360.com/qa-mike-gilliland
  12. 1 2 Sprot, Lindsey. "A Blooming Market." May 2010. Shopping Center Business. http://www.shoppingcenterbusiness.com/articles/MAY10/story28.shtml
  13. 1 2 Wild Man Still Challenging Whole Foods. CNN Money." 27 De. 2007. http://money.cnn.com/video/news/2007/12/27/bg.sunflower.cnnmoney.cnnmoney/
  14. ↑ Sport, Lindsey. "A Blooming Market." May 2010. Shopping Center Business. http://www.shoppingcenterbusiness.com/articles/MAY10/story28.shtml
  15. ↑ Tucson Weekly. Sep. 2010. http://www.sfmarkets.com/images/stories/inthenews/tucson_weekly_best_of_tucson__sunflower_farmers_market_best_organic_food_store_09-23-10.jpg
  16. ↑ "Sunflower Market wins 'Hot Retailers' award." 28 May 2010. New Mexico Business Weekly. http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2010/05/24/daily44.html
  17. ↑ Best of Burque 2010. http://alibi.com/index.php?story=31374&scn=feature
  18. ↑ Boulder Weekly. http://www.boulderweekly.com/article-2446-best-of-boulder-2010-retail-(continued).html
  19. ↑ Colorado Springs Independent. 21 Oct. 2010. http://www.csindy.com/colorado/winners-index/Content?oid=1886142
  20. ↑ Colorado Daily. 31 March 2010. http://www.coloradodaily.com/ci_14792559#axzz19RwnD9Ti
  21. ↑ Grocery Headquarters. 1 June 2010. http://www.groceryheadquarters.com/articles/2010-06-01/Sunflower-Farmers-Market-Wins-Hot-Retailers-Award
  22. ↑ Gazette.com. http://www3.gazette.com/bestof/details/?id=220
  23. ↑ BoulderChamber.com. http://www.boulderchamber.com/page/53
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.