Boise headquarters of Albertsons LLC adds staff

Albertsons LLC’s grocery store lineup has shrunk, but the headcount at its Boise corporate office has not.

Since the privately held company acquired the former Albertsons Inc.’s underperforming stores in June, it roughly doubled the number of employees at its 250 E. ParkCenter Blvd. headquarters to more than 50, CEO Bob Miller said.

“Over time, we have taken over more responsibilities from Supervalu as we have geared up,” he said. “It certainly looks like Boise will continue to be our headquarters.”
When Albertsons Inc. was sold, Minnesota-based Supervalu acquired about 1,100 better-performing stores including the Idaho Albertsons stores. Albertsons LLC acquired the underperforming stores and signed a service agreement with Supervalu.
Miller said Albertsons LLC has taken over day-to-day merchandising and procurement from Supervalu, though Albertsons LLC still teams with Supervalu on major purchase contracts.
Supervalu still provides accounting, information technology and some other services to Albertsons LLC. The companies share an office building.
Miller’s office is in Boise. Corporate-office employees support Albertsons LLC division presidents stationed in the regions where the company owns stores, he said.
Albertsons LLC doesn’t expect to add many more employees at its corporate office, he said.
As for the existing staff, they include former Albertsons Inc. and Supervalu employees, he said.
“We are not presently negotiating to sell any more groups of stores,” Miller said.
“Our goal now is to run the remaining divisions,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that we won’t look at tweaking stores, at opportunities to acquire other stores, or at divesting a store, just like any other retailer.”
“We are not in cost-cutting mode” at the remaining stores, Miller said. The company is focused on improving fresh produce offerings, customer service, and sales at the stores, the former Rite-Aid and Fred Meyer CEO said.
“We’re very happy with present results,” he said.
Albertsons LLC will own about 390 stores when it completes the sale of 130 stores in northern California and northern Nevada, and five in Texas — deals announced recently. Albertsons LLC owned more than 650 at the outset.
Spokesperson Chris Wilcox said the company employs more than 60,000.
It operates under the Albertsons banner in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Wyoming and Utah.
Albertsons LLC will lose about 13,000 employees in February, when the sale of stores in northern California and Nevada is expected to conclude, she said.

***
To contact the author, send email to: [email protected].