The new funding--a $30-million five-year loan with Fifth Third Bank and a $5 million equity investment from its existing financial partner, Pacific Corporate Group--will be used to add new stores within 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 site include San Ysidro Plaza in Santa Fe, NM, on January 13 and the Shops at Galleria in Bee Cave, TX. The site also lists Heights Village in Albuquerque, NM as the location of a new store sometime in 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 store count to 27 from 20. Gilliland, tells GlobeSt.com its typically store size is 28,000 square feet and it tends to use regional brokers in its search for new locations, which are typically second generation real estate located in strip malls.
It's first location in New Mexico, for example, as a former Albertson's grocery store. Its new location just happens to be new construction that the landlord agreed to build in exchange for Sunflower's lease commitment. Gilliland says the chain will focus on growing throughout the Southwest over the next several years before considering a national expansion.
"We think [this latest round of financing] will get us to a point of self-sufficiency where we can throw off enough cash to expand on our own," he said. "We're hoping this is our last round of financing."
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