Boys Markets in Merger Talks With an Unidentified Company
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Boys Markets, a 54-store Los Angeles supermarket chain catering primarily to minority communities, is holding merger talks with another firm, a company official said Friday.
“There is a possibility of being merged into a larger company,” said Peter J. Sodini, president of Boys Markets. Sodini would not identify the potential buyer, saying only that an announcement would probably be made next week. He added that the suitor “would not necessarily be a Los Angeles company.”
The talks come a little more than a year after the chain was purchased by American Breco Corp., a Century City firm controlled by the wealthy Brener family of Mexico. American Breco paid $131 million for Boys and has been converting some of the stores into Viva supermarkets, which cater to Latino consumers.
Since taking over Boys, the Brener family has remained an active buyer of supermarket chains. In September, 1988, American Breco agreed to pay $5 million for three stores from the Irvine Ranch Farmers Market, which filed for protection under U.S. bankruptcy laws. The Breners plan to expand the chain into 15 stores within five years.
In December, the Breners purchased the 18-store Cala Foods chain located in the San Francisco area for an undisclosed price.
The Breners have launched a campaign to convert much of Boys to stores that offer special foods and products that appeal to the Los Angeles area’s burgeoning Latino community.
Founded in 1924, Boys Markets has been lauded for locating stores in primarily minority communities that have been abandoned by the much larger supermarket chains. However, it has been criticized for charging higher prices than most chains.
Before buying Boys, the Brener family, headed by Alfredo and Gabriel Brener, tried and failed to enter the Los Angeles supermarket business in a joint venture with Houston-based Fiesta Marts in 1985.
The family’s American holdings include a real estate development company in Denver, a Palm Springs shopping center and a ranch in New Mexico.
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