BRUNO'S SUPERMARKETS history

1933: Joe Bruno opens an 800-square foot grocery store in Birmingham

In 1935 the family opened a second store.

By April 1, 1959, when the company was incorporated in Alabama as Bruno’s, Inc., all four Bruno sons were well established in the business.

Bruno's and city officials cut the ribbon on a Homewood Bruno's store in 1965. (FILE)

In 1968 the company opened its first Big B Discount Drug Store, a chain that would grow steadily over the next dozen years.

Bruno's Food Stores had also been expanding, reaching a total of 29 stores throughout Alabama by 1970.

In 1972, Bruno's opened its discount grocery chain, Food World, which was followed by warehouse-oriented Consumer Foods.

First, Bruno's divested its Big B Discount Drug Stores in 1980 by offering all stock in the subsidiary to the public.

In 1983 the company remodeled its Bruno's Food Stores and renamed the chain Bruno's Food and Pharmacy.

The same year Bruno's opened its first Bruno's Finer Foods, and in 1985 it launched its Food Fair chain.

At a 1987 opening in Huntsville, Alabama, Cajún Chef Paul Prudhomme gave a cooking demonstration, and samples from store departments included fresh strawberry shortcake, chocolate and champagne ice cream balls, and fresh Beluga caviar.

The company also bought seven BiLo supermarkets in 1988, which moved the company into Georgia.

——, "Rebel Sell," Financial World, January 9, 1990.

On December 11, 1991, the nearly $3 billion company suffered a catastrophic blow when its corporate jet crashed into Lavender Mountain in Rome, Georgia, killing all 9 passengers: the Chairman of the Board, Mr.

The cause of the crash was not released until April 1992 along with the NTSB report, citing pilot error as the main cause of the crash.

Bruno’s planned to open 33 new stores in fiscal 1993.

Rumors of a buyout were circulating in 1994, and the following year Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) approached Bruno's with an offer to acquire the company for $12.50 a share.

KKR, which owned 82 percent of Bruno's at the time, lost the $250 million in equity it had put up in the 1995 leveraged buyout.

In 1996 the company cut costs by closing its distribution center in Georgia and closing or selling 47 underperforming stores.

For years the company had operated dozens of stores under the Piggly Wiggly name but had terminated its franchise agreement allowing it to use the name in 1997.

Early in 1998 Bruno's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Bruno's was also targeted by the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 1657 in an extensive strike in its hometown of Birmingham, Alabama, which began in September of 1999.

2001: Dutch supermarket titan Royal Ahold buys Bruno's, with 184 stores, for $500 million.

2003: Ahold begins combining management of Bruno's and larger chain Bi-Lo at Bi-Lo's Mauldin, S.C., office to save money.

In 2004, as part of that centralization, however, Ahold ordered the closing of 11 stores in Alabama, putting 362 employees out of work.

2005: Lone Star Funds sells 104 underperforming stores, including 33 in Alabama, to C&S Wholesale Grocers, which sets up the Southern Family Markets chain.

Lone Star then sold some stores to C&S Wholesale Grocers, which operated the new stores under its Southern Family Markets affiliate for a time but closed most of the acquired stores in 2007.

In December 2008 the corporate offices were moved to International Park office park located in Hoover, Alabama.

At the beginning of 2009, Bruno's Supermarkets operated 23 Bruno's stores, 41 Food World stores.

February 2012: Grocery veteran Bill White and his son, Jeff White, announce plans to buy 57-store Southern Family Markets chain from C&S Wholesale Grocers.

July 17, 2013: Belle Foods seeks approval from the bankruptcy court to sell 12 stores in Alabama and Mississippi, shrinking the footprint of stores from 57 to 32.

AnonymousApril 25, 2015 at 11:03 PMGrowing up in Hoover, if you wanted to treat yourself on the weekend, you would go to Bruno's and pick you out a steak that was cut fresh.