MIAMI -- Miami convenience store chain Farm Stores is in talks to buy Gardner's Markets, one of the area's oldest fine-food shops, reported The Miami Herald. Farm Stores has more than 100 drive-through markets, and Gardner's runs four gourmet stores.
Executives at both firms wouldn't comment beyond confirming that talks were taking place, said the report. Maurice Adams, one of Gardner's owners, said there was a letter of intent between the two firms. Carlos Bared, CEO of Farm Stores, cautioned that his company frequently looks at transactionsmany that [image-nocss] don't materialize.
The deal comes at a time of high interest and competition in the gourmet-food industry, with sales growth at gourmet grocers surpassing that of more traditional markets. National chains, such as Whole Foods, The Fresh Market and Wild Oats, are expanding on what for years was the sole turf of a number of local specialty stores. Both Whole Foods and The Fresh Market have reportedly targeted South Florida for expansion.
David Livingston, a supermarket analyst at DJL Research, said natural foods seems to be where the fad is right now. Natural food stores in Miami still make up a tiny percentage of the overall grocery marketGardner's has less than 1% of market share, compared to 56.5% for Publix, according to the report.
Across the United States, specialty food makes up only about 8% of the market, the report said, citing Lucia Moses of Supermarket News. But she said it grew at a 15% clip last year, while the overall food market in general is growing at just a couple of percentage points.
A Florida institution, Farm Stores has tried to remake its image in the past but ended up in bankruptcy in the early 1990s, the Herald said. In 2001, it launched an initiative to convert its stores into express markets.
Concerning a possible Gardner's deal, Jeff Lenard, a spokesperson for the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), told the newspaper, If you're doing food, you have to make sure that you have the expertise, If Farm Stores bought an established gourmet chain, it might acquire that expertise and could thus expand its options, he said.
In June 2000, Gardner's tried to open a drive-through at one location, but it had to withdraw its application after it decided that the water and sewer requirements were too expensive, the report said.
And Simone Zarmati Diament, the publisher of SouthFlorida
Gourmet.com, said that she is concerned the quality of Gardner's products could suffer if Farm Stores purchases it. It means that Gardner's will not be seeking out the specialty foods it used to seek in the past, she told the paper. The heirloom tomatoes, the very special vegetables, the foie gras.
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