A national grocery chain with one location in Richmond County has announced expansion plans.
Sprouts Farmers Market, a grocery chain out of Phoenix, AZ. that touts its healthy and organic products, plans to open about 20 new stores this year. Two of the new stores will be in Georgia, one in Buford, the other in Smyrna. Augusta’s Sprouts store is located at 630 Crane Creek Dr.
Some of the new stores will try something different, a smaller format than most current stores.
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In making the announcement, Dave McGlinchey, Sprouts Chief Format Officer, said four of the new stores will be 25,000 square feet.
“The smaller size is very efficient and keeps produce at the heart of the store while maintaining our familiar open layout that will offer more assortment of products for a treasure hunt shopping experience.”
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The Smyrna, Ga. store will be one of the four with the smaller format. Current stores are at least 30,000 square feet.
Sprouts is also opening two new distribution centers. One in Colorado opened last month.
“As we grow our footprint, we will strategically place new stores and distribution centers closer together to maximize our owned fresh product network,” said Chief Fresh Merchandising Officer Scott Neal. “This will better serve our customers who are looking to Sprouts for the best quality and value in fresh and organic produce.”
A second center will open later this year in Orlando, Fla.. to support all stores in Florida. One of the company’s existing distribution centers is in Atlanta.
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Other cities getting new stores include Miami and nine other cities in Florida along with Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Texas. This will bring the company’s total number of stores to about 380.
South Carolina does not have any Sprouts Farmers Market stores, and none are included in the current expansion plans.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
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