A bankruptcy judge gave Belle Foods, the Birmingham-based grocery chain, permission to sell as many as 44 of its 57 stores operating under the banners of Bruno’s, Food World and Belle Foods, early Wednesday.
Thirteen of those locations are in the Mobile Bay area, 9 of which are in the city of Mobile.
The agreement between Belle and its biggest creditor, C&S Wholesale Grocers, would allow the family-run firm to continue to operate as the debtor-in-possession until the stores are sold by Oct 4., Belle officials said in a released statement.
“At this point, this is the best way to serve our customers, preserve jobs for our employees and support our communities,” said Bill White, owner and President of Belle in a released statement.
“We expect these stores to be sold as on-going operations and will work with any new owners to see that our people remain employed. We have some of the best and most experienced grocery professionals in the south working in our stores.”
Meanwhile, the Mobile area stores have remained in limbo after the company announced on last week that they were seeking approval to sell the locations here. Last week, Brad Jorgensen, Belle’s creative director, confirmed that a company was interested in picking up some of the Mobile stores.
A judge approved the sale of all 44 of the remaining stores Wednesday.
