Roy Furr - Furr's Grocery Stores and Furr's Supermarkets

Furr's Grocery Stores and Furr's Supermarkets

C.W. Furr, Roy Furr's father, founded the retail operation in 1904 and operated the stores primarily in west Texas. Roy Furr entered the retail business, ultimately known as Furr's Inc., in 1923 and began a grocery store expansion in 1929. Eventually the chain expanded into New Mexico. By 1978, the chain had grown to 140 stores throughout New Mexico and west Texas, primarily smaller grocery markets. In 1979, the German investment banker Rewe-Leibbrand obtained full ownership over Furr's Inc. In 1990 Rewe-Leibbrand liquidated most of the stores in the Texas panhandle and sought to divest and find new investors for ownership of the remaining stores in New Mexico and west Texas. By 1991, the ownership of the company was 54 percent held by a Hamburg, Germany-based investment banking firm, 40 percent by the Fleming Companies (a Lubbock, Texas-based grocery supplier), and six percent by the American executive management team. The company, now known as Furr's Supermarkets Inc., moved its headquarters from Lubbock, Texas to Albuquerque, New Mexico.

In 1991, Furr's purchased 13 Safeway stores in New Mexico, and the company operated 75 grocery stores. By 1993, Furr's operated three divisions: Furr's Emporiums (the superstore operation), Bag'n'Save Stores (the grocery warehouse division), and So-Lo Stores (club warehouse-style stores). Through aggressive merchandising campaigns, Furr's was the primary grocery competitor to Albertsons stores, Kroger Corporation's Smith's stores, and Raley's stores in New Mexico and west Texas. In 1994, sales exceeded $1 billion.

In 1995, Furr's sought outside investment in the company. Windward Capital Partners, a private New York equity investment group, acquired majority ownership of Furr's. In 1998, the Fleming Companies liquidated its ownership interest in Furr's, and subsequently Furr's Supermarkets acquired ownership of one of Fleming's distribution warehouses in El Paso in order to execute its own grocery supply operation for its stores.

By 1999 Furr's operated 75 grocery stores in New Mexico and Texas with about 5,500 employees.

On February 8, 2001, Furr's sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and then ultimately converted the filing to Chapter 7, thus liquidating all of its properties and ceasing business operations. Some properties were acquired by Smith's stores, some were acquired by Lowe's Market stores, some were acquired by independent grocers and many were shuttered.