Bellingham, Wash. (September 8, 2015) – Haggen, the West Coast regional grocer, announced Tuesday that in order to reorganize around its core profitable stores, it has filed voluntary petitions for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington. The company has received commitments for up to $215 million in debtor-in-possession financing from its existing lenders to maintain operations and the flow of merchandise to its stores during the sale process.
The Company has made customary first-day motions with the Bankruptcy Court intended to support the continuation of its day-to-day operations for customers, employees, vendors and suppliers, and other business partners during the restructuring. As part of that, it is seeking Court approval to continue employee wages and certain benefits and honor certain customer programs. The motions are expected to be addressed by the Court in the coming days.
“After careful consideration of all alternatives, the company concluded that a reorganization through the Chapter 11 process is the best way for Haggen to preserve value for all stakeholders,” said John Clougher, Chief Executive Officer of Haggen. “The action we are taking today will allow us to continue to serve our customers and communities while providing Haggen with a process to re-align our operations to be positioned for the future.”
The Company has engaged Sagent Advisors to market for sale some locations in the five states it operates and to explore market interest for various store locations. Discussions are underway with interested parties to sell many of the company’s remaining assets.
Haggen grew from an 18 store regional grocer to 164 stores through the purchase of Albertson’s locations in December 2014. The associated conversion process of the stores made Albertsons cooperation and good faith implementation of the terms of the deal in the Asset Purchase Agreement essential.
This did not occur, as set forth in the Company’s recently filed lawsuit against Albertsons, which details a number of Albertsons’ actions, which ultimately led to Haggen’s failure in its efforts to convert newly acquired stores and ultimately resulting in the Chapter 11 filing.
About Haggen
Founded in 1933 in Bellingham, Washington, Haggen has built its business on providing guests the freshest and most local products with genuine service, while supporting the communities it serves. In the first half of 2015, Haggen made an acquisition expanding from a Pacific Northwest company with locations in Oregon and Washington to a regional grocery chain with locations in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada and Arizona. Throughout its eight decades in business, the company has supported regional farms, ranches, fisheries and other businesses, creating a lasting and sustainable local food economy. The company remains focused on its core values as it expands. For more information about what’s happening at Haggen, visit haggen.com.
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48 Comments
massive over-reach expansion. oops.
Every time Dann Turk eats there he gets sick. I didn’t believe him till I had their freshly baked muffins haha
They’re clearing their store out and selling items for 50%, 25%, & 10% off… Even with that, their prices are still higher than Ralphs. Bub-bye Haggen Grocery!
You can grocery shop at Red Lobster for less…
Seems like anything you buy is $3.99! Everything ! Buh-Bye.
Both locations?
Even popsicles went up.. I go to Wal Mart, Sprouts, Vallarta, Trader Joe’s and Valley Produce Market now for everything.
Wanda Landowski
I just miss vons.
They destroyed Vons for what??
Their prices were WAY WAY out of line.
Ya Haggen u messed up. But let’s just think about all the employees that were coned into staying with them and giving up everything they had with vons. Most of them are now unemployed or cut down to 24 hours. I just feel for them.
That placed I didn’t care for
Stupid….
I only go into the Haggen (old Pavilions) to use the water machine. One time an employee came in there and said to another employee “they sent me here from the other store because there are actually people here” I guess people don’t like high prices…weird.
The bright executive (s) should be removed. What they did to Von’s was really bad.
The only ones that didn’t see this coming was themselves…
Remove the one on Bouquet ASAP!!
But will they put back the Vons? NO! They screwed us on that one, big time! :-( :-( :-( Mel
“You reap what you sow”
Good Bye Haggen!!!!! Now can I get my Albertsons back?!?
They sure messed up! I miss the Vons on Bouquet Cn. Rd. I had hi hopes forr a store that would use “local” stuff. But Haggen jacked up the prices on everything. Been in to shope once. No more. :-( :-( Mel
This sucks a lot of good people lost their jobs. An old HS classmate worked for Vons for 22 years, he just got laid off by Haggens
I don’t like these stores. I much preferred Vons. Big mistake Santa Clarita
Well I mean the Vons left because of federal law so…
Oh really? I didn’t know :/
That Vons was where we did our grocery shopping. I decided to check them out during the grand opening. I walked out and never returned when I saw a moldy piece of fruit. Really? Moldy fruit during the grand opening. As Rodney Dangerfield would say, “They’re off to a great stop.”
I call it “Haggis!”
It’s a corporate game..they just bought vons? And they were on the brink of being broke?
Albertsons bought Vons and had to close some stores because monopoly laws
Even the sale items are more expensive than regular priced items at other stores. I feel bad for the employees losing their jobs
As many Pacific North-westerners are fond of saying to anyone not from there, “Go home”.
7-11 rocks !
I work at the Albertsons on Bouquet and we’ve gotten a bunch of employees and customers from Haggens.
Guess I’ll be coming back too. I was useing Vons because it was just down the street from where I work, ( Charmaine’s flower shop) and oon my way home. Guess I can make a left turn instead of a right, and go up to Haskell. Won’t be that much out of my way. :-) :-) Mel
You put them in places that people have money.. According to some residents I spoke with on N 50th who live in those beautiful homes.. Those people won’t step foot in the store even though it’s convenient.. People with money like to bargain shop too.
Not even the people near the Mulholland one will shop there
Julianne Goff
Lower your prices and more friendly
Look around the master planned city and you’ll see that it isn’t so master planned. For all the talk of business friendly environment, not much real business here except by those chain stores and restaurants. Town Center for example is owned by a foreign juggernaut called, Westfield. Not entire sure why it’s even called Town Center. Has nothing really to do with Valencia or Santa Clarita – just a mall with some way over-priced commercial real estate. Maybe b/c it used to be sort of in the middle of Valencia? For accuracy here, retail, office rates are lower here than say, Sherman Oak, but not by much. The reality is not much local shops or restaurants out here – or ones that can survive both the high rents and lack of true income spending. Most mom and pop stores and restaurants have to be located in the more run down or older ares of the valley to survive. Downtown Newhall is experiment – some will argue a failed experiment. Who really goes there or lingers about? Can it really become a place for local commerce to prosper? Sure, but it’s not going to be from your typical Valencia resident. What they’re doing there should have been done at Town Center. But Westfield will never allow that.
In reality much of our world is a perception carefully manipulated by the ones who profit from it; Wall Street, Real Estate to name two. How many people do you know out here that make 250k or more a year? Exactly. Yet, plenty of one-million dollar homes selling. Over-bidding and competition for 600k homes is the norm. Stay home mom, dad works and makes 150k a year ? No way but a few hundred or so do that … but yet, the perception is Santa Clarita is wealthy, booming and a lot of disposable income flying around… Sorry. Not the case at all.
Case and point with yet another failed grocery store closing. of course, they were expensive, but only to a majority of Valencia residents. News flash: Pavilions Valencia was a low earner in their chain and was actually losing money for years. Vons too was in trouble – have been under performers for years. They were supported by other more profitable stores in the chain. Some under perform, others over perform – average them out. Go take a stroll around the outdoor part of the mall called the Patios. Lot’s of high priced, elite like stores that actually don’t make enough money to justify their existence out here, but yet are open. Reality is, they are supported by their parent companies, other stores or anchor stores – this is also part of Westfield business model. Just about every Westfield mall has a Lucille’s BBQ restaurant anchored to it.
Sad to say, there are but a few independent stores within the Town Center, but not as much as there should be for a city that sells business friendly environment to the outside world – ya know, part of the miserably executed “Awesometown” campaign.
Albertsons closed down their Westridge store a few years ago… the owner(s) of the strip mall there have yet to secure a permanent tenant to replace – maybe will never. Honestly, Trader Joes should go there. But that won’t happen. Actually, when Bristol Farms came to the Bridgeport Market Place a few years ago, and failed, (see my sentence about people out here don’t make enough money) that would have been the perfect place for Joes. But they had already moved into probably the worse engineered shopping center complex in all of California. And now you have some of the worse congestion and traffic issues in all of our Valley because of it. How the hell did the city allow that zoning ?
Now, what part of master planned community are we talking about? Certainly not shopping, retail and commerce.
You can argue that the master planned community is not actually done yet, therefore, once it is, we will see the model change to support more. Maybe true. But at what cost? Water ? Pollution? Newhall Land’s massive new development coming will increase traffic congestion something awful but its affect on business will remain to be seen. Will we see more local shops pop up in those shopping centers or more of the chain stores? I think more chains. Here is why. Once the traffic becomes worse, and it will, some areas will become even more valuable to live and shop b/c of the easier accessibility, (Stevenson’s Ranch / Westridge is much much higher b/c of this exact model) thus the rent will rise to support that, therefore, prevent the locally owned and operated shops from surviving.
Do you know the most expensive retail rent is at the corner of Copperhill and Newhall Ranch Road? Pita Pit, Habit, New Moon, pay the highest per square foot retail rate in all of Valencia. So next time you go into New Moon ( which is not a chain) and wonder why it’s sort of expensive for what it is – now you will know why. Catch 21 is barely making it. Remember Maru at Town Center? They had a affordable ten-year lease that when expired, Westfield wanted a much much higher rate to stay – didn’t care if they stayed or left. Given the very low profit margin of the food industry, Maru, a very popular place, had to leave.
It’s not so nosey out here – far from it. And don’t believe the hype or perception. Money(tax revenue) drive the true decisions at city hall, front and center.
Put a King Taco
This is something which needs to be investigated not just accepted.
What happened Jennifer Jennifer Hayden?
Melle Martinez
Hate that place. We use to have a decent store, I hope they leave and something that is consumer friendly replaces it.
Seems we all have the same story. How does a modern corp get it so wrong
Vons was the BEST market!! I went to Haggens once & that was enough for me! Hated it!! Not in love with Albertsons either – overpriced!