Grocery Outlet, the discount supermarket with a remarkable track record of profitability and parent company of Amelia’s, is exploring a sale that may bring more than $1 billion, according to reports. The company’s private equity owner, Berkshire Partners, LLC, has hired Barclays and Goldman Sachs to run a sale process.
Grocery Outlet, whose stores are mostly in California, Washington and Oregon, wasn’t known in Pennsylvania grocery circles until late 2011 when the company purchased Amelia’s. Amelia’s currently operates 16 stores in Eastern PA, while Grocery Outlet has about 180 stores.
Sales for Grocery Outlet in 2013 were approximately $1.3 billion.