BOISE, IDAHO — Albertsons Companies Inc., the No. 2 supermarket retailer whose brands include Albertsons, Safeway and Jewel-Osco, has filed for an initial public offering. The company did not disclose how many shares it would offer or what those shares would cost, but did indicate it expects to raise $100 million. Proceeds from the offering will be used to repay debt and expenses, the company said.
Albertsons is one of the largest food and drug retailers in the United States, with both strong local presence and national scale. As of June 20, the company operated 2,205 stores across 33 states under 18 banners, including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Acme, Tom Thumb, Randalls, United Supermarkets, Pavilions, Star Market and Carrs. The company also operates in 121 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States and is ranked No. 1 or No. 2 by market share in 68% of them.
“Our operating philosophy is simple: we run great stores with a relentless focus on driving sales growth,” Albertsons noted in a July 8 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We believe that our management team, with decades of collective experience in the food and drug retail industry, has developed a proven and successful operating playbook that differentiates us from our competitors.
“We implement our playbook through a decentralized management structure. We believe this approach allows our division and district-level leadership teams to create a superior customer experience and deliver outstanding operating performance. These leadership teams are empowered and incentivized to make decisions on product assortment, placement, pricing, promotional plans and capital spending in the local communities and neighborhoods they serve. Our store directors are responsible for implementing our operating playbook on a daily basis and ensuring that our employees remain focused on delivering outstanding service to our customers.”
In fiscal 2014, Albertsons sustained a loss of $1,225 million, which compared with income of $1,733 million in fiscal 2013 and $79 million in fiscal 2012. Sales and other revenue in fiscal 2014 totaled $27,199 million, which compared with $20,055 million in fiscal 2013 and $3,712 million in fiscal 2012.
Over the past nine years, Albertsons has completed a series of acquisitions, most recently acquiring Safeway in January 2015, a move that significantly increased the company’s scale and geographic reach.
“We are currently executing on an annual synergy plan of approximately $800 million related to the acquisition of Safeway, which we expect to achieve by the end of fiscal 2018,” Albertsons said. “We expect to deliver annual run-rate synergies of approximately $440 million by the end of fiscal 2015.”
