Recently in Grocery Category

Rio Ranch Markets, a grover specializing foods employed in the preparation of Latino cuisine,  has signed a 10-year lease at Southridge Plaza in Fontana, the brokerage invvolved in the deal announced.

Argent Retail Advisors founder Terry Bortnick represented the grocer and property owner, which is Mabela, LLC. The dollar value of the lease was not disclosed.

Southridge Plaza is in the 11600 block of Cherry Avenue, near Live Oak Avenue in Fontana. Rio Ranch is set to take up space previously occupied by a Ralph's store.

The new Rio Rancho store is scheduled to open in the second quarter of 2012. The grocery chain is headquartered in Riverside.

Increased grocery sales led to an $8.8 million profit for Stater Bros. Holdings Inc. in the quarter ending March 27, the grocery chain said late Tuesday.
The second fiscal quarter profit was a 46.7 percent rise from the same quarter last year. Store sales grew 3.15 percent to $913.4 million, reversing the decline in sales seen in the first quarter.
High unemployment and rising food prices led Chief Financial Officer Phillip J. Smith to predict earlier this year that the San Bernardino-based chain would see a decline in sales in fiscal year 2011.

Last week's strike authorization vote does not mean a work stoppage at Southern California grocery stores is imminent, a union leader said.

"We go back into negotiations tomorrow," said Connie Leyva, president of Union of Food and Commercial Workers Local 1428.

Talks are expected to continue through through this week and the next two weeks, added Leyva, who said she was hopeful a strike could be averted.

UFCW Local 1428 represents grocery workers in the Pomona and Claremont areas. Union members throughout Southern California voted last Thursday to authorize a strike if negotiations with Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons fail to produce a new collective bargaining agreement.

The union is in separate negotiations with Stater Bros. Markets, which is based in San Bernardino.

The UFCW's Southern California locals last went on strike against Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons in 2003-04. The unions and grocers experienced a prolonged negotiations process in 2007, but succeeded in avoiding a work stoppage.

The members of seven local UFCW unions voted to authorize a strike if negotiators fail to reach a collective bargaining agreement with three supermarket chains.

"Different locals have had different results, but in the end, it was in the 90th percentile," UFCW spokeswoman Ellen Anreder said Friday.

The vote authorizes negotiators to call a strike against Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons. The UFCW also represents Stater Bros. employees, but the union is in separate negotiations with the San Bernardino-based chain.

Vons and Ralphs representatives said they could not comment beyond a written statement issued Thursday:

Asking for strike authorization is a common tactic in negotiations and does not necessarily mean a strike will be called. Getting sidetracked by these tactics will only delay our ability to reach an agreement on a fair contract for our associates. The real work towards getting a fair contract will happen at the negotiating table and we hope that's where the union leadership will focus its attention as we return to bargaining next week.

Stater Bros. chairman Jack Brown said his company's negotiators report directly to him on contract negotiations. He and others reached for comment said they could not disclose any specific sticking points that may be hindering an agreement.

Asked if he expects to reach a deal soon, Brown simply said "We're continuing to negotiate."

The UFCW on one side and the triumvirate of Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons battled each other during a 141-day strike during 2003-04. The two sides managed to avoid a strike in 2007 after negotiations went on for four months beyond the expiration of their previous contract.

UFCW leaders are counting votes that would give grocery union leaders authorization to go on strike against Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons.

The Pasadena Star-News, the Sun and Inland Valley Daily Bulletin's sister paper, reported that members of UFCW Local 770 " members "overwhelmingly" approved giving their contract negotiators the option to call a strike if necessary."

UFCW spokeswoman Ellen Anreder said the locals representing workers as far north as Mono County and as far south as the Mexican border. She emphasized that a "yes" vote would not mean the union would immediately go on strike, but union negotiators would have that option.

Anreder said she was not authorized to elaborate on the sticking point between union and grocery chain negotiators.

The two sides have been in negotiations since February. Albertsons, Ralphs and Von's issued the following joint statement:

"Asking for strike authorization is a common tactic in negotiations and does not necessarily mean a strike will be called. Getting sidetracked by these tactics will only delay our ability to reach an agreement on a fair contract for our associates. The real work towards getting a fair contract will happen at the negotiating table and we hope that's where the union leadership will focus its attention as we return to bargaining next week."