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Belle Foods

Founded	2012
Products	Dairy, deli, frozen foods, grocery, meat, produce, general merchandise, health and beauty care
Website	www.belle-foods.com

Belle Foods, LLC is a family-owned chain of American supermarkets headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama,, run by father-son team Bill White and Jeff White. The company is going through bankruptcy and is scheduled to have all of its stores sold or closed by October 4, 2013.

Information

Belle Foods is currently owned by father-and-son team Bill and Jeff White. The chain assumed operation of 57 stores, acquired from Southern Family Markets, on July 1, 2012. Store nameplates currently include Piggly Wiggly, Bruno's, and Food World, but all stores were originally planned to be rebranded to Belle Foods. The chain's stores are located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi. Belle Foods uses C&S Wholesale Grocers, former owner of Southern Family Markets, as its supplier. Belle Foods had approximately 2,850 employees, as of July 1, 2013.

Bankruptcy

Belle Foods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on July 1, 2013, exactly one year after its founding.

The company originally planned to close 13 of its 57 stores by August 3, 2013. This included five Food World locations in Hueytown, Gadsden, Florence, Decatur and Mobile in Alabama. Also, Food World stores in Pensacola, Mary Esther and Niceville in Florida were planned to be shut down. The Piggly Wiggly store in Tifton, Georgia was also going to be closed by August 3. Belle Foods attempted to sell off assets to try reconciling a $42 million dollar debt.

Firing of ~300 Full-Time Workers

Leading up to the bankruptcy, Belle Foods announced in April 2013 that it would be "hiring" approx. 300 part-time employees, but what that actually meant was that approx. 300 full-time employees were being let go and some of the laid off workers would be offered part-time positions instead. Bill White at the time said, "I could see that if I didn't move forward with these reductions, even more teammates could be negatively affected."

Cullman, AL Grievance & Subsequent Local Concert/Donations

Later in April, The Cullman Times reported that the affected workers had filed a grievance and were trying to stop the change, which affected the Cullman Food World: "We’ve filed our grievance, so we’ll hopefully have a hearing within a week or so, then the employer has 10 days to respond. After that, if they’ve not responded in favor of membership, the next step would be arbitration." A few short months later in June 2013, Belle Foods was in Cullman, Alabama, spending $50,000 by sponsoring a "Rock the South" music concert and donating to organizations such as The Link of Cullman County (Religious Non-Profit), Brooks' Place (Child Advocacy Center in Cullman) and Cullman Christian School. Rock The South occurred just a week before the company declared bankruptcy.

Additional Stores Being Sold Off/Potentially Closed

In mid-July 2013, Belle Foods filed court paperwork indicating its intention to sell off 12 more stores (9 in Mobile, AL area, 1 in Athens, AL and 2 in Mississippi). This would have taken Belle Foods completely out of the Mobile area. Combined with the 13 stores closing by August, this would have reduced Belle Foods store numbers from 57 to just 32 - a 44% size reduction.

Unsecured Creditors Committee Formed

On July 17th 2013, it was announced that an unsecured creditors committee was formed to represent the interest of the companies Belle Foods hasn't been able to pay. Currently the committee is planned to have 11 members selected from a list of the 20 largest unsecured creditors, which are businesses such as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc., Buffalo Rock Co. and Nestle USA.

Belle Foods Faces $191k Bad Check Claims From Creditors, Preemptively Switches Banks

Also, on the same day (July 17), creditors from Barber’s Dairy, Purity Dairies, Brown’s Dairy, Mrs. Stratton’s Salads and Mayfield Dairy Farms filed new claims stating that Belle Foods had written $191,005.18 worth of bad checks to them - because the checks were not honored by SunTrust. Just one day before these bad check claims were filed, Belle Foods announced they are switching from SunTrust to Cadence Bank.

Closing Of All Remaining Stores

On July 24, 2013, less than a month after saying their were filing bankruptcy, Belle Foods announced they were selling all 44 remaining stores. This was due to their inability to pay off the $42 million in debt that owners Bill White and Jeff White had generated or taken on in less than 12 months while running the company. At the most, the stores will be open until October 4 (unless sold) and Bill and Jeff White will only be with the company for a period of time until a chief restructuring officer is chosen to sell off the remaining locations.

In the July 24 statement to the press, Bill White said, "...our focus is on our customers and teammates." Before Bill White and Jeff White started running Belle Foods in mid-2012, the 57-store grocery chain employed approximately 3,000 people.

At the time of purchase the Whites said they wanted to grow the chain and not close any stores. Early on Bill White said to the press, "We told them we're here for the long-term. We want this to be here for our kids someday." Belle Foods announced bankruptcy exactly one year after its founding.

Belle Foods Awards/Recognition, Pre-Bankruptcy

In an ironic twist, not only was Belle Foods named "Retailer of the Year" in late 2012, its CEO, Bill White, was elected to the National Grocers Association's Board of Directors in February 2013, about four months before Belle Foods declared bankruptcy.

Management Details

In February 2012, Jeff White remarked to the press, "We consider ourselves average Joes." Before Belle Foods, Bill White worked with the financials Big Y Foods Inc. as their Chief Financial Officer. Jeff White worked at Big Y as well, with his father. The Whites decided to bring in their own senior management team in when starting Belle Foods, instead of retaining all the senior management who was already there, in their pre-Belle Foods positions. This was done despite Bill White saying, "Management has done a good job of turning the stores around in the last few years, and there are a lot of great, dedicated employees."

Regarding union workers and compensation, even though the majority of Southern Family Markets' union contracts were set to expire when the deal closed, the Whites started to re-negotiate them months in advance, as early as February 2012.

Jeff White also commented that, "It's a thin-margin business, which makes it fun." Additionally, Bill White had this to say about other grocery businesses near their soon-to-be-owned stores, "We don't fear them. We will attack what we feel are the weaknesses of our competitors" and that they had a capital budget to implement changes.

In the end, Bill White and Jeff White became just another set of Bruno's many out-of-state owners.

References

1. "Contact." Belle Foods. Retrieved on October 5, 2012. "800 Lakeshore Pkwy Birmingham Alabama 35211"
2. ^ "Belle Foods to sell remaining 44 stores". AL.com. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
3. Belle Foods Finalizes Purchase Of Southern Family Markets Stores , theshelbyreport.com, July 2, 2012
4. ^ Belle Foods files bankruptcy "Belle Foods files bankruptcy". Birmingham Business Journal. Retrieved 4 July 2013. {{cite web}}: Check |url= value (help)
5. "Ala.-based grocer looking to close 13 stores". Daytona Beach News Journal. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
6. "Birmingham-based Belle Foods to hire 300 part-time employees and reduce its full-time workforce". AL.com. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
7. "Food World union filing grievance over layoffs, part-time transition". Cullman Times. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
8. "Giving Back - Rock the South". Belle Foods. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
9. "Belle Foods wants to sell a dozen stores, mostly in Mobile". Birmingham Business Journal. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
10. ^ "Belle Foods faces bounced check claims, new creditors' committee". AL.com. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
11. ^ "Father, son pursue dream with purchase of Southern Family's 57 grocery stores in 4 states". AL.com. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
12. "Birmingham-based Belle Foods named Southeast Retailer of the Year". Birmingham Business Journal. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
13. "NGA Elects Belle Foods' Bill White To Board". The Shelby Report. Retrieved 4 July 2013.

External links

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• Belle Foods
• C&S Wholesale Grocers

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