BI-LO (United States)
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| Private | |
| Industry | Grocery store |
| Founded | 1961 |
| Headquarters | Jacksonville, Florida, United States |
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Number of locations
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180 |
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Area served
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Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina |
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Key people
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Ian McLeod (President and CEO) |
| Products | Bakery, dairy, deli, frozen foods, general grocery, meat, produce, seafood, snacks, liquor |
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Number of employees
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About 13,000 |
| Parent | Southeastern Grocers |
| Website | bi-lo.com |
BI-LO is a supermarket chain owned by Southeastern Grocers. As of October 2015, the company operates 180 supermarkets under the BI-LO brand in South Carolina, North Carolina and Georgia. The BI-LO headquarters were previously located in Mauldin, South Carolina, near Greenville.; however, they merged into Southeastern Grocers headquarters which is headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, United States currently.
BI-LO was founded in 1961 by Frank L. Outlaw. The original name was Wrenn & Outlaw. The company was officially named BI-LO in 1963 after Outlaw conducted an employee store-naming contest to develop the "brand." His secretary, Edna Plumblee, won the contest by submitting the name "BI-LO."
BI-LO was sold to Ahold, a Dutch retail food conglomerate, in 1977. In 1994, Ahold purchased Red Food Stores, Inc. and merged its locations (around 55 of them) in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee into BI-LO the following year. In 2001, Ahold purchased the Birmingham, Alabama based Bruno's Supermarkets chain and combined its operations with BI-LO.
In 1998, the company sponsored the construction of the Bon Secours Wellness Arena (formerly the BI-LO Center) in Greenville, South Carolina.
In June 2001, BI-LO debuted their discount grocery format, FoodSmart in Camden, South Carolina. A month later, BI-LO purchased eight Harris Teeter grocery stores in South Carolina and converted those stores to either BI-LO or the FoodSmart formats.
In 2003, BI-LO invested in redesigning its store layout to attract high end customers. The result was the new Super BI-LO concept of a larger store layout featuring a greater selection of healthier foods, specialty foods and organic foods. Since then the company has opened new Super BI-LO branded stores as well as remodeled older stores in affluent neighborhoods.
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Wikipedia