PORTLAND, Ore. — Editor's note: The video above is from 2017
New Seasons Market is being acquired by a subsidiary of a global South Korean retailer.
New Seasons' board approved the sale to upscale California-based grocery chain Good Food Holdings, a subsidiary of South Korea's largest retailer Emart, which is part of The Shinsegae Group. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Emart acquired Good Food Holdings for $275 million in December 2018, according to the industry trade publication And Now U Know. The publication also reported that Emart had been eyeing the U.S. market. The Good Foods acquisition was its first.
Portland-based New Seasons Market employs 4,000 across 21 stores in Oregon, Washington and Northern California. That includes employees of New Leaf Community Markets, which New Seasons acquired in 2013.
Good Food Holdings is the holding company for California-based Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres Natural Market, and Seattle-based Metropolitan Market.
As a result of the sale, New Seasons will sell its Mercer Island market to Metropolitan Market and will close its Ballard location by the end of the year. It will also not open a previously announced new location in the Central District of Seattle.
New Seasons will work with its Seattle-based employees to help them secure jobs at its Portland locations or with Metropolitan in Seattle. For those who do not move on to jobs within the company, New Seasons said it will provide job search assistance, transition pay and extended health care benefits.
Portland Business Journal: Selling New Seasons and keeping the culture
“This partnership with Good Food Holdings ensures our longevity as a community cornerstone — one that continues to nourish our neighbors and staff, inspire environmental stewardship and champion the local food economy, as we have done since 2000,” said New Season and New Leaf CEO Forrest Hoffmaster in a release.
The release also noted that Hoffmaster and the current local leadership team will continue to lead the organization.
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Portland Business Journal is a KGW news partner