Dive Brief:

• A group led by Lucky’s Market founders Bo and Trish Sharon have agreed to acquire the company’s seven remaining stores still in operation, according to a press release. The asset purchase agreement between the two sides is subject to a court-supervised auction process.
• The stores being sold collectively employ 600 workers and are located in Traverse City, Michigan; Columbia, Missouri; Melbourne, Florida; Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio; and North Boulder and Fort Collins, Colorado.
• Lucky’s also disclosed the locations of the 11 Florida stores Publix and Aldi have agreed to acquire. The six locations Aldi is bidding on are in Coral Springs, Oakland Park, Sarasota, Vineland, Colonial Landing and Venice. The locations Publix is bidding on are in Naples, Neptune Beach, Clermont, South Orange and Ormond Beach.

Dive Insight:

In its bankruptcy court filing earlier this week, Lucky’s revealed that it would sell its seven remaining stores rather than hold onto them. It turns out the company had entered into an agreement with none other than its founding couple, who opened the first store in Colorado back in 2003.

Bo and Trish Sharon, both trained chefs, operated Lucky’s initial location in Boulder for 10 years before expanding to a second location in Longmont. By 2016, Lucky's had 17 stores and attracted interest from Kroger, which agreed to invest in the company and took an ownership stake. The Cincinnati-based grocer withdrew its investment in December.

In a statement, Bo Sharon expressed gratitude to Lucky’s employees and said he hopes the remaining stores will operate at a high level.

“While this is a difficult situation across our company, we remain passionate and optimistic that we can continue to offer our communities access to healthful foods in this smaller footprint, preserving hundreds of jobs,” he said in a statement.

The company confirmed last week that it would sell 32 of its 39 stores, and on Monday announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing increasing competition in Florida and Kroger’s withdrawal.

Aldi operates dozens of stores in Florida and has been successfully operating in Publix’s shadow. Other chains have struggled, while specialty competitors Earth Fare, The Fresh Market and Sprouts Farmers Market are trying to prove their value and succeed where Lucky’s failed.

Lucky’s said is continuing to field interest from companies for its remaining stores. PJ Solomon is assisting in the sale of its assets while Polsinelli is the company’s legal advisor and Alvarez & Marsal is its restructuring advisor.