Henry's Farmers Market Under New Ownership, Merging to Become Sprout's

Artwork from www.henrysmarkets.com

Henry's Farmers Market, a local natural foods grocery chain that has recently been bounced around from being independently owned by the Boney family, to being part of Wild Oats, then Whole Foods, and most recently Smart and Final is now being purchased by private equity firm Apollo Management, L.P. Apollo Management is also buying Sprouts Farmers Market, also founded by the Boneys but operated separately by the original family, Stan and Shon Boney, who are chairman and CEO respectively. The companies will be combined and renamed under the Sprouts Farmers Market name, with 98 stores and another 10 stores opening later this year. The deal is expected to close this spring.

The Boneys will remain with the company. Stan Boney is a son of Henry Boney, the San Diego entrepreneur who opened his first fruit stand at the corner of 70th and University back in 1943. Shon Boney is one of Henry's grandsons. Henry Boney and his family started and then sold several familiar businesses, including Speedee Mart, Boney's, and Windmill Farms.

You can find an FAQ on the merger website, www.1farmersmarket.com.


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The Future of Henry's

With the acquisition of Wild Oats by Whole Foods now a done deal, what, my worried friends ask, is to become of Henry's, which has been a property of Wild Oats? Will our stores morph into Whole Foods?

Well, folks, it turns out that Whole Foods is selling the Henry's Farmers Market chain, as well as Sun Harvest stores in Texas, to Smart & Final. The deal is supposed to close by the end of this month. Smart & Final is held by Apollo Management, a giant private equity firm.

This begs the question, "what does this mean for Henry's shoppers?" Will prices go back down since the expensive Wild Oats will no longer be in the picture? Will we end up with a Smart & Final style of bulk shopping? Anyone who has been to a Smart & Final lately knows it's a great place to buy restaurant-supply-type items, soda, cleaning products and enormous jars of pickles and the like. But it's hard to see how a Smart & Final style of merchandising relates to Henry's.

Stay tuned.



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