Fairway Said To Seek Bankruptcy That Keeps Some Stores Open

Grocery chain Fairway is in bankruptcy negotiations with Village Super Market Inc. to keep some stores open as Fairway attempts to sell the company, Bloomberg reported Wednesday (Jan. 22).

Village Super Market Inc., headquartered in New Jersey, owns ShopRite. A Village Super Market company representative did not respond to requests for comment nor did a spokesperson from Fairway comment other than an earlier official statement denying the company was intending to go out of business, according to the news outlet.

Fairway “has been engaged in a strategic process and expects to soon announce a value-maximizing transaction that will provide for the ongoing operations of stores,” the company said in its statement. All 14 stores are open and Fairway’s lenders remain “extremely supportive” of the company’s efforts, Fairway said.

A new bankruptcy filing would be Fairway’s second since the company first filed for Chapter 11 protection back in 2016 because of too much debt plus the rise of rivals Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s and Fresh Direct.

In 1933, Nathan Glickberg founded the company, a fruit and vegetable stand, that would become Fairway and eventually settled on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, according to the chain’s website. The company added groceries and specialty foods in the 1970s the grew the store’s size and increased the amount of customers.

Fairway filed for its first bankruptcy protection three years after consistently losing money since its 2013 public offering. Another debt restructuring occurred in 2018 after more financial challenges accrued.

Financial advisers to Fairway during yet another institutional reorganization include the restructuring law firm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and investment bank PJ Solomon Securities LLC. Both of those companies did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment.