The Friday Checkout is a weekly column providing more insight on the news, rounding up the announcements you may have missed and sharing what’s to come.
When Albertsons CEO Susan Morris laid out the supermarket chain’s strategy for reviving its sagging performance during the company’s quarterly earnings call on Thursday, she confidently cast the plan as a way to “improve the trajectory of the business and create long-term value for both customers and shareholders.”
Investors, however, immediately made clear that they are anything but optimistic about the company’s prospects, erasing more than a fifth of its stock market capitalization in a frenzied day of trading that left Albertsons’ share price at its lowest point since the grocer’s IPO in 2020. To put the grocer’s predicament in context, its stock is now worth more than a third less than it was on Oct. 14, 2022, the day the company announced its ill-fated plan to merge with Kroger — a seminal decision that wound up putting Albertsons on the path that dragged it to where it is today.
The erosion of Albertsons’ stock market value prompts an obvious question: Could the company now be cheap enough to make it an attractive target for a potential suitor willing to scoop up a beleaguered legacy grocery player — or at least part of it — at a bargain price? One analyst on the call asked if Albertsons is exploring “strategic alternatives” — code in the world of M&A for “looking for a buyer” — but Morris offered a less-than-emphatic response as she noted that her primary goal is bringing up the company’s share price.
“From a strategic alternatives perspective … of course we're always making sure that we’re considering every angle when we think about delivering shareholder value, but that’s not the primary discussion that we're having today,” she said.
Still, history suggests that the best way for Albertsons to boost its fortunes — at least over the short term — might be to shop around for a buyer. When the company announced on Feb. 18, 2022 that it was “evaluating strategic alternatives,” investors initially responded enthusiastically, bidding up its stock price to an all-time high in just a few days. Alas, the glory didn’t last: Albertsons’ search for a partner ultimately led to its doomed deal to join forces with Kroger — and the company has been chasing redemption ever since.
In case you missed it
H-E-B continues Dallas-Fort Worth region growth
The Texas grocer’s new store in Murphy, Texas, officially opened its doors on Wednesday, marking the latest effort by H-E-B to grow its presence in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. The store spans over 116,000 square feet and features a True Texas BBQ Restaurant, a full-service pharmacy, a fuel station and a car wash.
Located at 740 FM 544 and McCreary Road, this store marks H-E-B’s 14th namesake location in the area where it also operates six Central Market stores and three Joe V’s Smart Shop locations.
Ahold Delhaize announces new investments through venture capital fund
Ahold Delhaize invested in five new start-ups through W23 Global, three of which focus on artificial intelligence-enabled solutions and two that are centered on sustainable operations in grocery retail.
The three AI-focused companies are Skyfire, Haast and Cresta. Skyfire enables secure agent-driven commerce, Haast is an AI-native platform designed to automate marketing compliance and brand protection and Cresta is a platform that combines autonomous AI agents with real-time human teams.
On the sustainability front, the venture capital fund invested in Moment Energy and Verse. Moment Energy works to extend EV battery lifespan to prevent premature recycling and landfill waste. Verse is an energy intelligence platform that helps large-scale energy consumers manage energy portfolios.
Simbe establishes new executive position
The in-store technology company announced Tuesday it onboarded Sean Reardon to serve in the position of vice president of field operations. Simbe said the purpose of this role is to accelerate investments in enterprise-scale store intelligence.
Reardon will oversee global field operations implementation strategy and deployment excellence to ensure Simbe’s retail partners can consistently scale store intelligence.
Impulse find
A true New England experience
Two Somerville, Massachusetts, cyclists biked 100 miles in a single day last month to visit Market Basket’s 36 stores on the North Shore, The Boston Globe reported this week.
But Dominic Galiano and Paolo De Guzman said this is just the start of their “Market Basket World Tour,” the Globe wrote.
The friends' goal is to ultimately visit all 90 of the grocer’s stores across New England. Galiano and Guzman said they chose the grocer as their biking benchmark because it gives them a true taste of New England towns and people.
But they don’t just visit a Market Basket parking lot as they cycle — they purchase something from every store, keeping the receipts as proof they were there. De Guzman’s snack of choice from the grocer is a $1 package of sour gummy worms, while Galiano browses the discount rack at the back of each location, the paper reported.
