Deal involves 11 supermarkets in North Texas

HOUSTON — Fiesta Mart L.L.C., a Texas supermarket chain specializing in serving immigrant communities, is acquiring 11 Minyard Food Stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth market from RLS Supermarkets L.L.C.

The acquisition will give Fiesta 70 stores across Texas, the company said.

“We are excited to welcome Minyard Food Stores to the Fiesta family,” Fiesta CEO Michael Byars said in a statement. “This action reinforces the strategic growth plan we put forth early last year. Our entire Fiesta team has worked together to move the brand forward organically, and now through acquisition we continue on our growth plan.”

Byars has ties to Minyard, having worked for the company from January 2005 through January 2009. He served as president and CEO of Minyard for more than three years. He joined Fiesta in 2015. Fiesta was early that year by ACON, an international private equity investment firm.

“ACON is pleased to add Minyard Food Stores to the Fiesta team as part of our strategic vision to grow the Fiesta brand,” said ACON marketing partner Bhatia. “Our prior supermarket investing experience and success will further strengthen Fiesta’s position in the markets we serve.”

Fiesta was co-founded by Donald Bonham and O.C. Mendenhall in Houston in 1972. Inspired by food markets Bonham had seen while working in Latin America, Fiesta Mart outlets were among the first in Houston to cater to Hispanic shoppers in a major way.

Minyard was founded in Dallas in 1932, and when the family-owned company was sold to a private equity firm in 2004, it operated 69 Minyard, Carnival and Sack ‘n Save stores, as well as 15 fuel centers. The Carnival format, developed in 1990, was the company’s own effort to cater to the needs and product preferences of Hispanic consumers. Minyard in 2008 sold its 37 Carnival stores to a group that included Fiesta Mart, which by that time had expanded from Houston into other parts of Texas, including the Dallas-Fort Worth area. the Company also sold off its no-frills Sack ‘n Save stores, and in 2011 the remaining Minyard stores were purchased by Carrolton, Texas-based RLS Supermarkets. That company later created a new banner, Sun Fresh Market, after buying some Albertsons and Tom Thumb stores in North Texas in the wake of Albertsons’ acquisition of Safeway.

Two of the stores Fiesta is acquiring are Sun Fresh Market outlets. RLS plans to continuing operating the eight remaining Sun Fresh Market stores under that banner.

The newly acquired Minyard store locations, meanwhile, will be transitioning to the Fiesta brand over the next several months. Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.