The new funding--a $30-million five-year loan with Fifth ThirdBank and a $5 million equity investment from its existing financialpartner, Pacific Corporate Group--will be used to add new storeswithin its existing markets of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah,Nevada, where it operates under its corporate name, and in Texas,where it operates as Newflower Farmers Market.

Planned 2010 store openings listed on the company's web siteinclude San Ysidro Plaza in Santa Fe, NM, on January 13 and theShops at Galleria in Bee Cave, TX. The site also lists HeightsVillage in Albuquerque, NM as the location of a new store sometimein 2010, as well as an undisclosed location in Longmont, CO.

Sunflower Farmers Markets says it has achieved 50%year-over-year sales growth in 2009 on a 35% expansion of its storecount to 27 from 20. Gilliland, tells GlobeSt.com its typicallystore size is 28,000 square feet and it tends to use regionalbrokers in its search for new locations, which are typically secondgeneration real estate located in strip malls.