Winn Dixie

Beginnings

Winn-Dixie was founded and built up by William Milton Davis and his sons Artemus Darius Davis, James Elsworth Davis, Milton Austin Davis and Tine Wayne Davis. William Davis started in business in Burley, Idaho, where he bought a general store in 1914 that he later renamed Davis Mercantile. As was common then, he sold most goods on credit. The advent of cash-only grocery stores in the 1920s hurt Davis' business as the new stores offered lower prices and larger selections.

In 1925, William Davis borrowed $10,000 from his father and moved to Miami, Florida, where he purchased the Rockmoor Grocery. In 1927, the company was renamed Table Supply, and four more stores were opened. In 1931, the Davis family bought the Lively Stores chain for $10,000, to create a chain of 33 Table Supply stores across Florida from Miami to Tampa. William Milton Davis died in 1934, leaving his four sons in charge of the company.

In 1939, the Davis brothers bought 51 percent of Winn & Lovett, a chain of 73 stores. In 1944, the brothers bought the remainder of Winn & Lovett and merged the two chains under the Winn & Lovett name. The company headquarters moved to Jacksonville. Winn & Lovett purchased the Steiden Stores chain of 31 stores in Kentucky in 1945 as well as Margaret Ann Stores, with 46 stores in Florida, in 1949. In 1952, Winn & Lovett became the first industrial corporation based in Florida to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Acquisitions

Winn & Lovett continued to grow by acquiring other chains. Penney Stores in Mississippi, Ballentine Stores and Eden Stores in South Carolina were all acquired in 1955. Winn & Lovett also bought the 117-store Dixie Home chain, and they changed its name to Winn-Dixie.

In 1956, Winn-Dixie bought Ketner-Milner Stores in North Carolina, Hill Stores in Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as King Stores in Georgia.

In 1967, Winn-Dixie bought the City Markets chain in the Bahamas, effectively extending their reach into the Caribbean. Operating 12 stores through its domestic subsidiary, W-D (Bahamas) Limited's competitors included the domestic Super Value Food Stores and Grand Union's own Caribbean operations until it sold the chain to Bahamian investors in 2006.

In 1995, Winn-Dixie expanded with the purchase of the Cincinnati-based Thriftway Food Drug. In 2000, it acquired Jitney Jungle.

Involvements

Although Winn-Dixie Stores (and its predecessor Winn & Lovett) has been publicly traded since 1952, the Davis family has always maintained control of the corporation. As of February 2005, when the company entered bankruptcy, the heirs of William Milton Davis still held about 35 percent of Winn-Dixie stock.

The Davis brothers also became involved in Florida politics, supporting conservative causes. It is reported that their financial support helped George Smathers beat incumbent U.S. Senator Claude Pepper in 1950. Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Donald Regan is reported to have said of his financial guru, James E. Davis: "When J.E. calls, I listen." It is reported that after reading Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery, James E. Davis began a program of Winn-Dixie supporting historically black colleges and universities.

The Davis brothers endowed the Stetson University School of Business Administration with a building, Davis Hall, which was dedicated in 1967. On the dedicatory plaque inside the building, below the names of the donors, was the inscription, "Learn management that you may produce or distribute goods and services to improve the living for the people and produce a good return on invested capital for investors."

In the 1990s, Winn Dixie gave a generous contribution to the Boy Scouts of America of the Central Florida Council, resulting in the renaming of Camp La-No-Che to Winn-Dixie Scout Reservation. However, when Winn-Dixie encountered financial difficulties and could not sustain its promised contribution, it released Central Florida Council from its obligation to retain the name, which has since been changed.

Winn-Dixie has long been involved in Jacksonville, including being considered the official supermarket of the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League (NFL). (It is also the official supermarket of the New Orleans Saints.)

Banking

Amicus Bank FSB jointly operated MarketPlace Bank from 2000-2002 with 185 outlets in Florida.

Financial difficulties

In April 2004, Winn-Dixie announced the closure of 156 stores, including all 111 stores located in the Midwest. Included were over 20 stores that had operated under the Thriftway name in and around Cincinnati purchased by Winn-Dixie in 1995. Another 40 stores in the Atlanta area were converted to the Save Rite Grocery Warehouse brand, as an alternative to store closure.

Bankruptcy

On February 22, 2005, Winn-Dixie filed for bankruptcy. On June 21, it announced the sale or closure of 326 stores. As part of the restructuring, the company pulled out of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. Once the restructuring was completed, Winn-Dixie's footprint was reduced to the Bahamas and five of the Deep South states--almost all of Florida and Alabama, the southeastern half of Louisiana, the southeast corner of Mississippi, and the southwest and coastal corners of Georgia. The closures transformed Winn-Dixie into a much smaller chain than it was in 1950s.

On February 28, 2006, it was announced that 35 more stores were to be sold or closed within the coming months, with the Central and South Florida areas being the most affected. On March 31, 2006, it was announced that the chain would sell its 12 Bahamian locations, which had been operated by a wholly owned subsidiary, W-D Limited, under the names City Market and Winn-Dixie.

Emergence from bankruptcy and acquisition by BI-LO

On June 29, 2006, Winn-Dixie announced that it had filed a plan of reorganization with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida. The company emerged from Chapter 11 protection on November 21, 2006 in a much stronger financial position. Upon emerging from bankruptcy in 2006, Winn-Dixie made great strides toward success which included a steadfast effort to modernize its existing store base while focusing on new locations for the future.

On December 19, 2011, Winn-Dixie agreed to be sold to BI-LO for $530 million. As part of the deal, Winn-Dixie became a subsidiary of BI-LO although its stores would continue to operate under the Winn-Dixie name.

As of March 9, 2012, Winn-Dixie became part of BI-LO Holdings, the parent company of both BI-LO and Winn-Dixie, ending 67 years of Davis family ownership. The combined company operates 750 stores in seven southeastern states, employing approximately 63,000 team members. The merged company is based at Winn-Dixie's former headquarters in Jacksonville.

On October 8, 2013, all remaining Sweetbay Supermarket locations were rebranded as Winn-Dixie. BI-LO Holdings changed their name to Southeastern Grocers in 2015.

Brands

Winn-Dixie has run over 60 private label brands over the years. In 2003 the company cut the number down to a three-tier system of brands: the "Prestige" brand for upscale private label products, "Winn-Dixie" for its mainstream items, and "Thrifty Maid" for its value items. In 2007, all three brands received redesigned packaging with plans to replace the "Prestige" brand with "Winn & Lovett". In 2010, Winn-Dixie replaced its value-centered brand Thrifty Maid with "ValuTime". ValueTime was replaced with Clear Value in 2012. The brands of "Clear Value", for the budget-minded shopper, "Winn-Dixie", which is designed to be as good as or better than national brands, and "Winn & Lovett", the premium, top-tier label, are the current private labels the organization uses store-wide. Winn-Dixie carries a store-brand line of organic and natural foods as well. These brands are on numerous products in almost all departments. Other category-specific brands include "Chek" for the store-brand soft drinks and "Kuddles" for the store-brand baby-related items.

The manufacturer code portion of the UPC remains 21140 for the "Winn-Dixie" and "Winn & Lovett" labels.

In early 2013, BI-LO phased out its own private label soft drinks in its BI-LO stores in favor of the popular "Chek" brand.

Winn-Dixie employs more than 48,000 associates who serve customers in approximately 513 grocery stores, 145 liquor stores and used to employ 393 in-store pharmacies, until closing the pharmacies and firing the employees without notice, throughout the five southeastern states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi.

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