The Fresh Market is an American chain of

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

based in

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; formerly Greensborough) is a city in and the county seat of Guilford County, North Carolina, United States. It is the third-most populous city in North Carolina after Charlotte and Raleigh, the 69th-most populous city in the Un ...

History

The Fresh Market was founded by Ray and Beverly Berry on March 5, 1982, in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Berrys' idea was to develop a better

grocery store A grocery store ( AE), grocery shop ( BE) or simply grocery is a store that primarily retails a general range of food products, which may be fresh or packaged. In everyday U.S. usage, however, "grocery store" is a synonym for supermarket, a ...

that brought back the feeling of open European-style markets. Their first store in the West opened in October 2012 in

Roseville, California Roseville is the most populous city in Placer County, California, located within the Sacramento metropolitan area. As of 2019, the US Census Bureau estimated the city's population to be 141,500. Interstate 80 runs through Roseville and State Rout ...

. However, in March 2014, the company announced that it was closing all three of its

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

area stores including its Roseville store. In 2012, Fresh Market acquired and remodeled four locations of longtime family-owned Houston grocer Rice Epicurean Markets. These locations were subsequently closed in May 2016 when Fresh Market shuttered its 13 locations in Texas, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas. After increasing the price of its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

from $18–20 to $22, Fresh Market raised $290 million, and on November 5, 2010, began trading on

Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

using the symbol TFM.

Apollo Global Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American global private-equity firm. It provides investment management and invests in credit, private equity, and real assets. As of March 31, 2022, the company had $512 billion of assets under management, ...

, LLC (APO) acquired the stock of The Fresh Market, Inc. (TFM) ("The Fresh Market") on April 27, 2016. The Fresh Market then became a

privately held company A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

and its stock was delisted on

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

. In March 2022, Fresh Market filed an updated prospectus for its initial public offering, signaling the companies intent to return to a public company. In May 2022 the Chilean retail company

Cencosud Cencosud S.A. is a publicly traded multinational retail company. It's the largest retail company in Chile and the third largest listed retail company in Latin America, competing with the Brazilian Companhia Brasileira de Distribuição and the Mex ...

acquired 67 % stake in Fresh Market.

Trademark disputes

The Fresh Market has been in numerous trademark disputes relating to its commonplace name. In 2005, the company lost a trademark dispute with "Marsh Supermarkets" relating to the 'Fresh Market' trademark. The U.S. federal court in South Bend, Indiana stated “The Fresh Market trademark is descriptive and therefore weak and not entitled to broad sweeping protection." The Fresh Market was also in trademark disputes with “Fresh Market at Roth's" and in 2010 with a Utah-based company named "A Fresh Market". In the latter case, it was argued that the term "Fresh Market" was too generic to be trademarked. In 2017 the company's name “The Fresh Market” was trademarked by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fresh Market Companies based in Greensboro, North Carolina Supermarkets of the United States Retail companies established in 1982 2010 initial public offerings Health food stores Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq 1982 establishments in North Carolina 2016 mergers and acquisitions Apollo Global Management companies