Five former Rainbow Foods grocery stores assumed new identities Wednesday, two months after a consortium headed by Supervalu Inc. acquired 18 Rainbow Foods stores in the Twin Cities for $65 million.
Three Rainbow stores — the Lagoon Avenue location in south Minneapolis, the West End location in St. Louis Park and the Arcade Street location in St. Paul — became Cub Foods stores operated by Supervalu. Two Rainbow stores, in Eden Prairie and Woodbury, became Byerly's stores operated by Lund Food Holdings Inc.
Jerry's Enterprises, Haug Enterprises and Radermacher Enterprises also joined the consortium that bought the 18 Rainbow stores from Milwaukee-based Roundy's Inc.
The Rainbow deal occurred at a time when Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers have been successfully competing with grocery stores. Under an agreement among the consortium members, Supervalu will supply all of the acquired stores.
In addition to the stores that have already switched names, Supervalu over the next two weeks will convert seven more Rainbow stores to Cub. They include the New Brighton Boulevard store in northeast Minneapolis, the 6th Avenue N. store in Plymouth and stores in Roseville, Chaska, Eagan, Oakdale and Lakeville.
Another six of the acquired grocery stores will continue to be operated by consortium members under the Rainbow name. They are in Minneapolis on 26th Avenue S., Plymouth on County Road 24, St. Paul on W. University Avenue, Richfield, West St. Paul and Maplewood.
"Each of these independent retailers, along with Cub, are longtime grocers who know this market and their customers, and are actively involved in their stores and communities," Supervalu CEO Sam Duncan said.
Supervalu also announced Wednesday that it is moving its 1,000-employee headquarters from 7075 Flying Cloud Drive in Eden Prairie to its previous headquarters at 11840 Valley View Road, also in Eden Prairie.
After a layoff of 600 employees in early 2013, the building on Flying Cloud Drive is now larger than needed, the company said. The move will begin this fall and continue until the Flying Cloud building's lease expires next April.
The headquarters layoff last year was part of a major downsizing of Supervalu when it sold its five largest grocery store chains in early 2013. Supervalu's employment dropped from 120,000 before the sale to 35,000 today. In addition to the 600 layoffs at the corporate headquarters building last year, another 500 corporate positions were cut in other states.
Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553