Tops, Price Chopper owner exploring sale of grocery stores (report)

The company that owns Tops Friendly Markets and Price Chopper/Market 32 is reportedly considering selling its grocery stores.

Reuters reports Northeast Grocery, Inc., the parent company of Tops and Price Chopper, is working with investment bank UBS to explore a sale process. Sources told the publication that other supermarket chains and private equity firms have expressed interest.

Northeast Grocery, which formed in 2021 when Price Chopper and Tops merged, is a Schenectady-based company with nearly 300 grocery stores in New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Hampshire.

Potential buyers have not been named publicly, but Reuters reports the company could fetch a valuation of over $1 billion, including debt. It’s unclear how much debt is involved, but the Times Union reports Northeast received a negative outlook in December from two credit rating agencies.

“Although the company has good market share in its key markets, its limited size leaves it somewhat vulnerable to strengthening competition from scaled, national grocers and general merchandisers,” Fitch said in a Dec. 20 note to investors.

Northeast has not confirmed any details of a potential sale.

“We continually explore opportunities to grow our business in a variety of ways, including but not limited to mergers, acquisitions or otherwise. Any further characterizations at this point would be purely speculative,” a spokesperson told Reuters.

Tops Friendly Markets and Price Chopper were both founded by families in New York. Tops filed for bankruptcy in 2018 and emerged later that year, eventually merging with Price Chopper to become a more competitive company.

In approving the merger, the FTC required the combined company to divest itself of 12 Tops stores, 11 of which were in New York. They were sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers.

The company has continued to operate locations under the Tops and Price Chopper brand names. Several stores have closed in recent years, including a Price Chopper in Clay in 2024 and a Tops in DeWitt in April.