Following the sale, Supervalu will consist of its wholesaler business, which serves 1,950 stores across the country; Save-A-Lot, the largest hard discount grocery chain in the United States, with approximately 1,300 stores across 35 states; and Supervalu’s regional retail food banners Cub, Farm Fresh, Shoppers, Shop ‘n Save and Hornbacher’s. Across these three revenue streams, the new Supervalu is expected to generate annual revenues in excess of $17 billion. Going forward, Supervalu will be concentrating on right-sizing its operations and maximizing efficiencies, the company noted.

The sale will consist of the acquisition by AB Acquisition of the stock of New Albertsons, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supervalu, which owns the banners, for $100 million in cash. New Albertsons will be sold to AB Acquisition subject to approximately $3.2 billion in debt, which will be retained by New Albertsons. As part of the transaction, AB Acquisition-owned Albertsons will reunite its Albertsons stores with the acquired NAI Albertsons stores.

In addition to the sale, within 10 business a newly-formed acquisition entity owned by a Cerberus-led investor consortium called Symphony Investors will conduct a tender offer for up to 30% of Supervalu’s outstanding common stock at a purchase price of $4 per share in cash. The tender offer represents a 50% premium to Supervalu 30-day average closing share price as of Jan. 9.

“I cannot stress enough that the sale and tender offer collectively make Supervalu a strong company,” Supervalu’s current president and CEO Wayne Sales told analysts in a conference call Thursday morning. “I will leave the CEO position knowing we have made good process following the turnaround effort.”

Following the closing of the transactions, Supervalu will name grocery retail veteran Sam Duncan president and CEO, replacing Sales. In addition, effective upon the closing of the transactions, five current Supervalu directors will resign. Immediately following the closing of the transactions, the size of the board will be reduced to seven members from the current 10 members. This seven member Board will consist of five current Supervalu directors and two board members designated by Symphony Investors, one of whom is Robert Miller, former Rite Aid chairman and current president and CEO of Albertsons, who will serve as non-executive chairman of the board. Miller and Duncan have worked together before at Fred Meyer. Following the completion of a search process, the board will be increased to a size of 11 directors, with the four new directors to consist of Duncan, an additional director appointed by Symphony Investors and two additional independent board members to be selected by the initial seven directors.

Duncan is expected to assume Supervalu leadership in late February. He most recently served from 2005 to 2011 as chairman, CEO and president of OfficeMax. Prior to joining OfficeMax, Duncan served from 2002 to 2005 as president and CEO of ShopKo Stores.

Miller presently serves as the CEO of Albertsons, a North American grocery company with approximately 192 retail grocery and drug stores across eight states. Albertsons is majority-owned by Cerberus Capital Management. Prior to joining Albertsons in 2006, Miller was chairman of Wild Oats Markets based in Boulder, Colo. In December of 1999, Miller was hired as chairman and CEO of Rite Aid, and led a successful turnaround of the nearly-bankrupt pharmacy operation. He continued to serve as chairman of Rite Aid until June 2007 and as director until 2011.

Intermix is a New York-based multi-brand specialty retailer of luxury and contemporary women’s apparel and accessories. It operates 32 boutiques across North America, along with an e-commerce site, offering a mix of luxury brands, including up-and-coming designers. Gap intends to expand Intermix’s network of stores, as well as add significant visibility and enhancements to its online site.

“Intermix has a distinctive position in this growing market with clear competitive advantage,” said Glenn Murphy, chairman and CEO of Gap. “Their record of merchandising with a keen eye towards mixing multiple designer labels, complemented with exclusive product, is appealing to their loyal customers. This strategy reflects the strength of their brand vision and leadership team.”

Gap acquired Athleta in 2008 and the multi-brand, premium product offering at Piperlime. With Gap Inc.’s guidance in the past four years, Athleta has expanded its e-commerce platform and grown its brick-and-mortar presence, with about 35 retail stores opened in the past two years.

“We’re thrilled to have found a partner that has the global scale and infrastructure required to support our vision for growth,” said Khajak Keledjian, co-founder of Intermix. “Gap Inc. shares many of our entrepreneurial roots, passion for innovation and customer experience. Together, we’ll continue to shape the future of retail by offering the most exciting fashion trends with the finest designers in the world.”

Keledjian will remain CCO and Adrienne Lazarus will remain president, and will report to Art Peck, president of Gap’s growth, innovation and digital division.

This is the eight year the customer experience analytics firm has conducted the survey examining shopper satisfaction with the nation’s top e-commerce players. Rounding out the top 10 in order of their appearance were Vitacost.com, Esteelauder.com, Vistaprint.com, 1800contacts.com, Keurig.com, Scholastic.com. Avon.com and Cabelas.com. The satisfaction report results are based on 24,000 responses from visitors to the top 100 Web sites between Thanksgiving and Christmas with each company assigned a score on a 100 point scale.
This year, aggregate customer satisfaction stagnated at 78 while a few big-name retailers suffered declines. For example, Apple’s online retail store slid 4% to 80, slipping from a tie for second place and out of the top five entirely, registering its lowest score in four years. PC competitor Dell.com also fell 4% to 77 and below the Index average. But the biggest year-over-year decline goes to JCPenney.com, with a 6% decline to 78.

“This year, we’re seeing that even some of the largest companies in the country are at risk if they lose sight of customer satisfaction,” said Larry Freed, ForeSee president and CEO. “Satisfaction with the customer experience, when measured correctly, is the most important predictor of future success, and while Amazon clearly gets it, Apple stumbles from their usual focus on the customer experienceDell, and J.C. Penney seem to be struggling to find their way, which could make them extremely vulnerable to competitors.”

Amazon.com continues to set the standard for customer satisfaction, matching the record high of 88 it set last year in the holiday edition of the Index. Amazon has had the highest scores in the Index for eight years in a row.

“At this point, Amazon has been dominant for so long and has such a history of focusing on the customer, its hard to imagine anyone else coming close,” Freed said. 

Shopper Satisfaction with Top 100 Online Retailers in the U.S., Holiday 2012

Total sales at TJX increased 7% to $2.2 billion during the November reporting period and so far this year sales at the company have advanced 10% to $20.3 billion. Total sales for November at Ross increased 6% to $813 million and so far this year are up 11% to nearly $7.8 billion.

“We are pleased that business trends in the second half of the month were strong, leading to our comp store sales for November coming in higher than we expected at a 3% increase,” said TJX CEO Carol Meyrowitz. “Business throughout the Thanksgiving week and weekend was robust, even as we remained true to our off-price practice of offering great values every day, and stayed out of the fray of Black Friday promotions.”

Meyrowitz said increased customer traffic drove the comp increase again this month as shoppers were drawn by extreme values on a merchandise assortment she characterized as compelling, always-fresh and branded.

“We continue to be excited about our prospects for December and the fourth quarter. Our marketing campaigns will be seen by more consumers. We have fantastic gift-giving initiatives underway in our store and we’ll be offering amazing values to consumers,” Meyrowitz said. “The holiday selling season is off to a very good start, and I am convinced we will continue to bring new customers into our stores and keep them coming back long after December.”

Ross Stores vice chairman and CEO Michael Balmuth expressed a similar sentiment.

“November same store sales were slightly ahead of our expectations of flat to up 1%,” Balmuth said. “We achieved these results despite unseasonably warm weather in the Western U.S. during the first half of the month. We are encouraged that our sales strengthened as weather normalized during the final two weeks.”

Although the company was pleased with its November performance, Balmuth said most of the holiday season was still ahead and forecast December comps in the range of 2% to 3%.

Ross ended the month with 1.097 stores while its larger rival TJX ended the period with 1,039 T.J. Maxx, 912 Marshalls and 417 HomeGoods stores in the United States; 222 Winners, 88 HomeSense, and 14 Marshalls stores in Canada; and 344 T.K. Maxx and 24 HomeSense stores in Europe.