Hannaford Bros. Co.

Infobox_Company
company_name = Hannaford Bros. Company
company_type = Subsidiary
company_
key_people = Ron Hodge, Chairman and CEO
foundation = 1883 (Portland, Maine)
location = Scarborough, Maine
industry = Retail
owner = Delhaize Group
products = Bakery, dairy, deli, floral, frozen foods, grocery, liquor, meat, pharmacy, produce, seafood, snacks, sushi
homepage = http://www.hannaford.com/

Hannaford is an American supermarket chain based in Scarborough, Maine. Founded in 1883, Hannaford now operates more than 150 stores in New York and New England. Formerly known as Shop 'N' Save, Hannaford is owned by the American subsidiary of the Belgian Delhaize Group, Delhaize America, which owns over 1,500 stores along the Eastern Seaboard, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic US.

History

Hannaford was founded in 1883 by Arthur Hannaford as a small produce store along the Portland, Maine waterfront.

In 1902 Arthur Hannaford's brothers, Howard and Edward, joined the business and they incorporated Hannaford Bros. Co. By 1920 the company became a leading produce wholesaler in northern New England. Hannaford then relocated to a new five-story warehouse on Cross St., Portland, Maine. In 1939, with the purchase of H. S. Melcher Co., sponsor of Red & White stores in Maine, Hannaford expanded into the wholesale grocery business. Late in 1944, Hannaford Co. opened its first "retail outlet" under a unique "equity partnership" arrangement with William T. Cottle.

By 1960, Hannaford Bros. had constructed a 200,000 square-foot distribution center in South Portland to better service more retail stores. With the purchase of 31 Sampson's grocery stores in 1961 as well as the 1967 purchase of Progressive Distributors, Hannaford soon expanded its retail presence. By 1971, the company's earnings topped $1 million.

Hannaford continued to rapidly expand throughout the 1970s and 1980s by opening the Wellby Drug Store chain, many of which were incorporated into Shop 'N' Save retail stores. By 1987 the company expanded into New York and Massachusetts; that same year sales hit $1 billion. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Hannaford was known as "Martin's Supermarket" in Vermont. In the mid 1990's, the "Martin's" name changed over in Vermont to the short lived "Shop n' Save" brand, and in the late 1990s, the name finally changed to "Hannaford Supermarkets"(in Vermont and New York). The region of Northern New York, which is in close proximity to the Burlington, Vermont market were also called "Sun Foods". The stores were named "Shop 'N' Save" in other regions of New York. In the 1990s, Hannaford began an expansion into the Southeast by purchasing a small Southeastern North Carolina supermarket chain, Wilson's Supermarkets, which served as the foundation of an expansion of Hannaford stores into the Carolinas and Virginia. In 2000, Delhaize America bought Hannaford; the purchase both eliminated an emerging competitor to its Food Lion chain in the Southeast and expanded its operations into the Northeast. However, the move ended up bringing an even bigger competitor into the market when national chain Kroger bought 20 of the redundant stores and moved into the market.

The Hannaford name first took over for Shop 'N' Save on private labels in 1996. Five years later, stores in the Portland, Maine, area assumed the name, with their counterparts in the rest of the state as well as New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont. As of 2006, only a small number of locations continue to use the Shop 'n' Save banner. Stores that are independently owned and operated franchises that receive merchandise through Hannaford's wholesale distribution use the Shop 'n' Save name, mainly in smaller communities. In 2005, 19 Victory Supermarkets in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were purchased and converted to Hannaford stores. Some Hannaford locations in North Carolina were sold to Lowes Foods upon the buyout by Delhaize America while others were closed.

Criticism

The company faced criticism shortly after voters in Augusta, Maine approved a new store on the location of the old Cony High School. Members of the Eastside Neighborhood Network (ENN) charge the new store is "the wrong project in that location." [ [http://www.redorbit.com/news/business/539766/planning_board_gives_first_approval_to_new_hannaford/index.html RedOrbit.com: Planning Board Gives First Approval to New Hannaford, June 15, 2006] ] The ENN asserts the proximity to one of the most dangerous rotaries (traffic circles) in the state as well as the closeness to an eastside neighborhood will be detrimental to the city and its welfare.

In late 2006 and early 2007, Hannaford faced strong criticism to a store to be located in rural Kingston, New Hampshire. The store was to be located in historic Kingston, and was opposed by some members of the Kingston Planning Board. Final decisions relating to the project are still undetermined.

The company has also faced a lawsuit of discriminating against the handicapped. In 1999, employees of the store in Gardiner, Maine mistook a man with a disability for being drunk, refusing him the sale of alcohol. The court found that Hannaford's policy of not allowing management to countermand the initial decision of the sales clerk, even in the light of credible evidence of disability, was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the company was ordered to pay damages. [ [http://www.drcme.org/publication_full.asp?pubid=32 Disability Rights Center of Maine ] ]

On March 17, 2008, it was reported [ [http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2008/03/18/grocer_hannaford_hit_by_computer_breach Grocer Hannaford hit by computer breach] ] that the company's credit-card processing servers had been compromised for three months. 4.2 million credit card numbers were stolen, of which at least 2100 had been used fraudulently.

References

External links

* [http://www.hannaford.com/ Corporate homepage]