News Roundup

Rouses Conversion of Former Sav-A-Centers Begins

CityBusiness October 2, 2007

NEW ORLEANS — Rouses Markets, which acquired 17 Sav-A-Center grocery stores two weeks ago, will open its first new site at 400 North Carrollton Ave. in Mid-City at 6 a.m. Wednesday.

Rouses, now the largest independent grocer in Louisiana, acquired the locations from the Southern Division of The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company Inc. Sept. 15 for an undisclosed price.

President Donald Rouse said the company took over the Carrollton Avenue location at 3 p.m. Monday and is training former Sav-A-Center employees for a total labor force of 140, although “at least 40 more” will be needed at the location.

“It’s going to be a challenge to find them but we’ll begin on that,” Rouse said.

Rouse plans to open two converted Sav-A-Centers per week. Stores at Tchoupitoulas Street and Napoleon Avenue and Airline Drive at Labarre Avenue will open Oct. 10. Those stores will close at 3 p.m. Monday to begin the transition to Rouses Markets.

Rouses now employs more than 2,400 people and it will reach 3,600 with the transition of all former Sav-A-Centers. Rouse plans to eventually employ 4,000 workers.

“My family has owned and operated grocery stores since 1960,” said Rouse, “but these will be our first locations in New Orleans itself. We are very happy that A&P chose to work with a Louisiana-based independent instead of a national chain. It’s important to the rebuilding process of south Louisiana that local companies like ours invest in our state.”

A former A&P location at the corner of Terry Parkway and Carol Sue Street on the West Bank will be closed no later than Oct. 31. Jefferson Parish and Rouse are determining whether the store should remain open, said Rouse. Once a feasibility study is completed on the store, Rouse will decide whether to reopen it, he said. If found unviable as a supermarket, Rouse will “redevelop it some other way.”