Southeastern Grocers Inc., the Jacksonville-based parent company of the Winn-Dixie supermarket chain, announced an agreement Aug. 16 to sell about 400 Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarket stores to German supermarket chain Aldi.
Winn-Dixie has long been a staple for grocery shoppers in the Southeast.
The Winn & Lovett supermarket chain, which would eventually become Winn-Dixie, established its headquarters in Jacksonville in 1944.
The company changed its name to Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. in 1955 after acquiring the Dixie Home Stores chain.
Here’s a Winn-Dixie timeline:
1913: In Burley, Idaho, Carl Davis begins working at the Clark Mercantile, the small local general store; his brother William Milton (W.M.) soon joins him.
1914: W.M. Davis buys the store and renames it the Davis Mercantile.
1925: Heeding the advice of his brother Carl, W.M. Davis decides to move to Florida to open a business. With a $10,000 loan from his father, W.M. purchases the Rockmoor Grocery in Miami. W.M. and sons Artemus Darius (A.D.), James Elsworth (J.E.), Austin and Tine are the store’s stockholders.
1927: The Davis family changes the store’s name to Table Supply and opens four more stores.
1931: W.M. Davis and his sons decide to pay $10,000 for retail chain Lively Stores. The acquisition leads to ownership of 33 Table Supply stores stretching across Southern Florida from Miami to Tampa.
1934: After the death of W.M. Davis from pneumonia, the four Davis sons assume responsibilities for Table Supply. Because the family believed W.M.’s death could have been prevented with better medical care, the family begins a relationship with the Mayo Clinic, which continues today.
1939: Bill Lovett, head of Winn & Lovett, convinces the Davis brothers to acquire 51 percent of his company’s 73 stores.
1944: The Davis brothers adopt the Winn & Lovett name and choose Jacksonville as the headquarters for their growing network of stores.
1952: Winn & Lovett lists on the New York Stock Exchange, making it the first Florida industrial corporation to do so. The company’s original ticker symbol is WIN.
1955: Through the acquisition of 117 Dixie Home Stores, the Winn & Lovett name is changed to Winn-Dixie Stores Inc.
1967: The company purchases City Markets stores in The Bahamas.
1969: Winn-Dixie operates 715 stores throughout the South.
1973-76: Winn-Dixie opens division offices and distribution centers in Charlotte, Orlando and Fort Worth.
1977: The St. Petersburg Times names J.E. Davis one of the 10 most powerful men in Florida.
1982: A. Dano Davis, J.E.’s son, takes the helm as president of Winn-Dixie. The next year, R.D. Davis, son of A.D. Davis, assumes the responsibility of vice chairman of the board and became chairman the next year.
1984: Winn-Dixie opens its first Winn-Dixie Marketplace store, a 45,000-square-foot facility in Valdosta, Georgia.
1993: J.E. Davis dies at 85. Dano Davis succeeds him as company chairman and principal executive officer. The company continues to acquire stores.
1998: The company launches its website, www.winn-dixie.com. Winn-Dixie stock price hits a peak at $59.38 per share
1999: Al Rowland becomes president and CEO.
2000: Winn-Dixie announces a major restructuring, including centralizing its procurement, marketing and merchandising. The restructuring involves closing more than 110 stores and eliminating 11,000 workers from the payroll. Winn-Dixie purchases 68 grocery stores, 32 fuel centers and two liquor stores in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.
2000-02: Winn-Dixie converts more than 50 stores in Florida, Georgia and Mississippi to the SaveRite Grocery Warehouse format
2001: Winn-Dixie hits a peak of 1,153 stores in five southern states and the Bahamas.
2002: Winn-Dixie launches the Customer Reward Card program. It divests its operations in Texas and Oklahoma.
2003: Frank Lazaran is named Winn-Dixie president and CEO. Winn-Dixie launches its store brand for nearly 3,000 items sold in all 1,073 stores.
2004: Winn-Dixie announces plans to cut 10,000 jobs by closing or selling 156 stores and three distribution centers and selling several manufacturing businesses. Peter Lynch is appointed as president and CEO of Winn-Dixie, becoming its fourth president in six years.
2005: Winn-Dixie files for Chapter 11 reorganization Feb. 21, 2005, to address financial and operational challenges. Bankruptcy ends the Davis family ownership in the company. Winn-Dixie announced its future store “footprint” June 21.
2006:
• Nov. 21. Winn-Dixie emerges from Chapter 11 protection with $725 million in exit financing as a new company and with a new board of directors. The corporation is allowed to begin issuing 54.5 million shares of new stock to creditors.
• Nov. 22. New shares of Winn-Dixie stock begin to trade on the NASDAQ stock exchange on a “when-issued” basis under the ticker symbol WINNV.
• Dec. 21. Winn-Dixie completes its initial distribution of common stock and the new shares begin to trade on the NASDAQ exchange under the ticker symbol WINN.
2007: Despite reorganization, Winn-Dixie remains a Fortune 500 company, ranking 305th with $7.878 billion in revenue in 2006. On Nov. 7, Winn-Dixie holds its first annual shareholders meeting since the company reorganized and emerged from Chapter 11.
July 2010: Winn-Dixie announces it will close 30 underperforming stores, including the Jacksonville store at 10915 Baymeadows Road, near Interstate 295. The closings are part of a cost-cutting plan to save $12 million to $17 million a year. The plan also calls for 120 job cuts. The 30 stores represent 6% of the company’s 514 locations in five states.
2011: Winn-Dixie embarks on a program to “transform” selected stores among the 484 it operates in the five states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. In Northeast Florida, the company transforms the store at 2220 County Road 210 in St. Johns County.
2011: Bi-Lo LLC, a grocery store chain based in Greenville, South Carolina, agrees to purchase the Winn-Dixie chain for $560 million.
May 2013: Company announces an agreement with Delhaize Group to acquire the Harveys banner.
September 2013: Southeastern Grocers files for an initial public offering.
August 2014: The company withdraws registration for IPO.
May 2018: The company emerges from a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization owned by a group of investment firms.
June 2020: Southeastern Grocers announces it will discontinue the Bi-Lo brand.
January 2021: Southeastern Grocers’ second attempt at an IPO is postponed.
August 2023: Southeastern Grocers agrees to sell Winn-Dixie and Harveys to Aldi and Fresco y Más banner to an investment group called Fresco Retail Group LLC.
Source: Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. and media reports.