The Kroger Co. is shutting down its grocery delivery business in Jacksonville and the rest of Florida, but as the company reported quarterly earnings, interim CEO Ronald Sargent talked about expansion in Northeast Florida.
Kroger has announced its Harris Teeter brand is opening a Jacksonville store and plans filed in St. Johns County suggest it may open two additional stores there.
Cincinnati-based Kroger operates more than 2,700 stores under several brands, but its only current brick-and-mortar supermarket in Florida is a Harris Teeter in Fernandina Beach.
“I should just mention how excited we are about our entry into Jacksonville with Harris Teeter,” Sargent said in Kroger’s Dec. 4 conference call with analysts, according to a company transcript.
“Jacksonville is an important adjacent geography that positions us to grow households and gain share,” he said.
“Harris Teeter runs a great business. They already operate in Florida in Amelia Island, which is about 40 miles from Jacksonville,” Sargent said.
“Florida itself is a large state. It’s a growing state. We expect to do very well there.”
The company has owned Harris Teeter since 2014.
Harris Teeter previously operated a store in Mandarin that closed in 2004 and a Ponte Vedra Beach store that closed in 2006.
Harris Teeter plans a Jacksonville store in the Atlantic North shopping center at northwest Atlantic and Kernan boulevards.
Also, plans have been filed in St. Johns County for new supermarkets that were unnamed but match the description of possible Harris Teeter stores at Veterans Parkway and County Road 210 West and at the SilverLeaf community.
“We’ll certainly fill up Jacksonville before we move to adjacent markets,” Sargent said.
He said the company had not previously been pursuing new store openings.
“One of our biggest challenges over the last few years is we haven’t allocated enough capital to growing stores because we have allocated a lot of capital in other areas like fulfillment centers.”
While the company hasn’t operated stores south of Fernandina Beach, Kroger began a grocery delivery service in Florida five years ago.
However, Kroger said in November it is ending that business in Florida. It will close a home delivery hub in Groveland and three other “spoke” stations for the service, including one in Jacksonville that employed 181 people.
That home grocery delivery service will end Jan. 6.
Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. completed the closure of 14 Maple Street Biscuit Co. restaurants in its first quarter ended Oct. 31, reducing the size of that chain to 54 locations.
Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel acquired then Orange Park-based Maple Street for $36 million in 2019.
Cracker Barrel does not report results for its Maple Street restaurants, but said in a news release it closed those locations “because of poor operating performance.”
The company’s total revenue fell 5.7% in the first quarter to $797.2 million and it recorded an adjusted net loss of $16.4 million.
The 656 Cracker Barrel locations have been dealing with backlash from customers who were unhappy with changes made to try and revitalize the chain.
“Our unique circumstances during the first quarter were exacerbated by a difficult macro and industry backdrop that saw choppy traffic patterns,” CEO Julie Masino said in a Dec. 9 conference call.
“We have made key operational changes. We’re connecting and reconnecting with our guests through our menu, messaging and continued commitment to value, and we’re taking significant steps to improve profitability. These are the things we need to do to return the company to a position of strength and recover the momentum we had been generating,” she said.
“We believe Cracker Barrel is taking the right steps to rebuild traffic by focusing on improved service and food quality, which is being reflected in strengthening guest satisfaction scores and will eventually, in our view, be reflected in a traffic recovery,” Truist Securities analyst Jake Bartlett said in a Dec. 10 research note.
Bartlett maintained a “buy” rating on the stock but lowered his price target from $50 to $45, with the stock trading at $27 at the time of his report.
Cracker Barrel’s stock has dropped from a 52-week high of $71.93 in July as customer complaints about changes in the restaurants affected business beginning in August.
An investment firm seeking to win four seats on Cannae Holdings Inc.’s 12-member board of directors was able to get two seats at Cannae’s annual shareholders meeting Dec. 12.
Carronade Capital Management LP launched the proxy fight against Cannae seeking to elect directors with more independence.
Cannae is an investment company spun off from Jacksonville-based Fidelity National Financial Inc.
Two former Fidelity executives, Erika Meinhardt and Frank P. Willey, lost their seats on Cannae’s board to two Carronade nominees, Mona Aboelnaga and Chérie Schaible.
Jim Stallings, managing partner at Jacksonville-based PS27 Ventures, retained his board seat along with another sitting director, Barry Moullet.
“We appreciate our shareholders’ continued support of Cannae and our strategy to deliver long-term shareholder value, and the constructive feedback that we received throughout this process,” Cannae Board Chairman Doug Ammerman said in a news release.
Carronade said in a statement that the election of two of its four nominees “is a testament to shareholders’ desire for meaningful change at Cannae and a win for all Cannae shareholders.”
Anheuser-Busch said it is selling its Newark, New Jersey, brewery and closing two facilities in California and New Hampshire, but the changes do not affect its Jacksonville brewery.
According to its website, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch operates 12 U.S. breweries, including those three.
“We’ll be shifting production from these three facilities to our other U.S. facilities, and these changes will enable us to invest even more in our remaining operations and in our portfolio of growing, industry-leading brands,” a company spokesperson said in an emailed statement Dec. 12.
“We will support the approximately 475 full-time employees currently working at these three facilities by offering all of them a full-time role elsewhere in our U.S. operations,” the statement said.
The company said a year ago it was investing $10 million to upgrade its Jacksonville brewery at 111 Busch Drive, which opened in 1969.
Anheuser-Busch said it has invested nearly $2 billion over the last five years to update and modernize 100 manufacturing facilities across the country.
The company is selling the Newark brewery to the Goodman Group.
It plans to close breweries in Fairfield, California, and Merrimack, New Hampshire, in early 2026.
Newfold Digital, a Jacksonville-based web and commerce technology company, said Dec. 9 it has reached an agreement with existing financial sponsors and lenders on a $100 million financing package.
The company said the money will be used to enhance liquidity, strengthen its capital structure and fuel long-term strategic plans.
Newfold was formed by the 2021 merger of Web.com Group Inc. and Endurance Web Presence.
Its main investors are Clearlake Capital Group L.P. and Siris Capital Group. Newfold said the new financing package does not alter its ownership structure.
Clearlake acquired another Jacksonville-based company, business data firm Dun & Bradstreet Holdings Inc., in August.
Cadrenal Therapeutics Inc. announced Dec. 11 it has acquired assets from Veralox Therapeutics used to treat a condition called heparin-induced thrombocytopenia, or HIT.
Ponte Vedra Beach-based Cadrenal is developing several drugs to treat patients who need alternative anticoagulant treatments but the company has no products yet on the market.
“We believe this is a compelling strategic addition to our pipeline, with the market size for HIT reaching $1 billion in the US and EU,” CEO Quang Pham said in a news release.
Cadrenal said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing the terms of the acquisition consist of a $200,000 cash payment, assumption of certain liabilities, contingent milestone payments of up to $15 million and royalty payments of 5% of annual sales of the drug.
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Colin Canfield said he is “incrementally constructive” on Jacksonville-based space technology company Redwire Corp. after hosting a virtual meeting with new Chief Financial Officer Chris Edmunds.
Edmunds succeeded Jonathan Baliff, who retired as CFO Nov. 30.
“At a high level, we think management commentary from meetings struck a healthy balance of conservatism and optimism, especially for looming drone opportunities,” Canfield said in a Dec. 9 research note.
“We also characterize investor feedback as broadly receptive with funds searching for oversold Defense and Space exposure amidst rapidly improving public market sentiment and a white-hot private market backdrop,” he said.
Canfield maintained an “overweight” rating on the stock but lowered his price target from $20 to $9, with the stock trading at $6.82 at the time of his report.
Maryland-based Fidelity Building Services Group announced Dec. 11 it acquired St. Johns Air, a Jacksonville-based provider of HVAC and refrigeration services for commercial and industrial clients in North Florida and South Georgia.
Fidelity has more than 75 U.S. locations providing HVAC/mechanical services, building automation, emergency power, and energy solutions services.
The company said in a news release the addition of St. Johns Air will strengthen its presence in the Florida and Georgia markets.
Terms of the deal were not announced.