A former professional football player is partnering with a veteran of the specialty food industry to open a new supermarket banner in Birmingham, Alabama.
Karlos Dansby, a former National Football League linebacker who played with several teams—and has not yet formally retired, although he last played in 2017—is planning to open two Dansby’s Foods locations in Birmingham this fall. A 50,000-square-foot store will take over the site of a former Winn-Dixie supermarket in the western area of the city, and will focus on upscale and locally sourced foods, according to the Dansby Foods website and local reports. The other location will measure 6,500 square feet and will focus more on convenience grocery items and prepared foods, according to a report in the Birmingham Business Journal.
The company could not be reached for further comment.
Dansby, founder, chairman and CEO of Dansby Foods, is also a co-founder and president of The Ultimate Fan, an organization that seeks to bring athletes, entertainers, and developers together to build and operate businesses in underdeveloped communities. Dansby’s partners in Dansby Foods are Theodore Holloway, chief development officer, who is also a partner in The Ultimate Fan, and Jeff Gentry, director of operations, who is a specialty foods industry veteran with experience at both supplier and retail companies.
Gentry most recently has been a partner in Bamawise, a company that seeks to develop Alabama-made products, and was also working in operations at The Harvest Markets, an independent grocery operator in Birmingham. Before that he was an account manager with Gourmet Foods International, a specialty food wholesaler and distributor based in Decatur, Georgia.
The larger Dansby Foods location will have a “heavy, heavy focus on healthy and local,” Gentry told the Birmingham Business Journal, as well as high-quality meat and produce and a wide assortment of specialty grocery items that are not widely available elsewhere.
For the past several weeks, the site has been the location of regular food giveaways through a partnership among Dansby Foods, The Ultimate Fan, and I Care Alabama. The organizations have worked with the USDA to hand out more than 27,000 boxes of fresh produce through the USDA’s Farm to Family Food Giveaway program.
“Dansby Foods is more than a grocery store that provides access to food to feed the people; it’s a healthy food and community development company educating people to feed and flourish themselves in the future,” said Holloway, in a statement.
The Ultimate Fan also recently formed a partnership with The Bridge, another development company founded by a former NFL player that is seeking to develop abandoned properties such as schools, shopping centers, and warehouses to create sustainable mixed-use "eco-villages" with housing, retail, co-working, urban agriculture, education centers, and entertainment facilities.
The Bridge and The Ultimate Fan have plans to expand by 2025 in eight cities, including Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh; Philadelphia: Atlanta: Seattle; Birmingham; Phoenix; and Houston.
Related: Grocery Delivery Increases in Urban Areas; Lyft Launches Grocery Access Program.
from Specialty Food News https://ift.tt/37QJZou
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