Family ran Modesto’s Save Mart for decades. How new owners plan to keep its family feel
After 70 years as a trusted Central Valley brand, Modesto’s Save Mart Supermarkets is embarking on its next big leap of faith with area customers.
Last week the grocery chain announced its acquisition by Kingswood Capital Management LP, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm. The sale ended the company’s reign as the largest family-owned supermarket chain in California. The new leadership also signaled the official end of the company’s ties with the Piccinini family, who co-founded Save Mart in 1952 and have owned and operated the business since 1985.
In their place, newly installed Executive Chairman Shane Sampson and CEO Chris McGarry hope to reassure shoppers that the Save Mart they know and have been shopping at for years will remain the same at its core, and continue to innovate in Modesto.
“It’s still a family of stores. Maybe it’s not family owned, but it’s still a family of stores. and our 14,000 associates are part of that family,” Sampson said in an sit-down interview with McGarry inside the company’s flagship Modesto store on Oakdale Road.
Sampson comes to The Save Mart Companies — which includes 200 Save Mart, Lucky California, and FoodMaxx grocery stores across Northern California and Nevada — after three decades of experience with supermarket chains including several years as the Albertsons Companies’ Chief Marketing and Merchandising Officer. More recently he held leadership positions with the cannabis company Schwazze and the Idaho-based convenience store chain Jacksons, where he sat on the board for its ExtraMile convenience stores co-owned with Chevron.
Family-owned valley grocer transitions to new ownership
McGarry is more than a year into his tenure as the first non-family member to lead The Save Mart Companies, taking over from third-generation grocer and former CEO Nicole Pesco. The family remained on the board until the sale last week.
Pesco’s grandfather, Mike Piccinini, co-founded the company with his brother-in-law, Nick Tocco, in 1952 on Crows Landing Road. Piccinini’s son, Bob Piccinini, bought the company outright more than 30 years later and is credited with growing its regional presence. Pesco took over as CEO in 2016, after her father passed away the year before, and spearheaded a rebranding of the company’s look and logo as well as the construction of a new Oakdale Road store which opened in 2019.
Pesco hired McGarry in 2017 as head of the strategy office, and he went on to serve as president and chief administrative officer until becoming CEO in January 2021. Before that, he spent more than a decade in leadership with the The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company. He said taking over for Pesco didn’t represent a sea change, but instead a continuation of the momentum they’d built together.
“We still consider ourselves a family, we still consider ourselves a community. I think what really separates us from some of the larger grocery chains is the fact that we live here, we hire from here, we are invested in the community,” McGarry said. “We are heavily invested in supporting the local education and civic institutions. We feel strong connectivity to the communities in which we operate. We feel strong responsibility to them.”
While most of the leadership including McGarry live in the area, Sampson has a home in Boise close to where his former employers Albertsons and Jacksons have headquarters. He said he plans to “get a condo” locally for his new role as executive chairman.
McGarry said The Save Mart Companies will continue its local and regional partnerships, including named sponsorship of the Save Mart Center, the 16,000-seat arena at Fresno State University, and the Toyota/Save Mart 350, a NASCAR Cup Series race at the Sonoma Raceway.
Modesto supermarket chain keeping local headquarters
In addition to its grocery stores dotted up and down the state from Redding to Santa Maria, the company also operates SMART Refrigerated Transport and is a partner in Super Store Industries. The latter owns and operates a distribution center in Lathrop, and the Sunnyside Farms dairy processing plant in Turlock.
McGarry said there has been “no contemplation” of moving the company’s headquarters out of Modesto.
“We are in Modesto, we obviously have a great number of stores in Modesto,” he said. “From my perspective there’s no change being contemplated there. We love Modesto.”
Sampson said Kingswood Capital Management’s interest in the company came from their retail focus. Last year the LA-based private equity firm acquired Alameda-based Cost Plus World Market from its parent company Bed Bath & Beyond. The firm also owns Lind Marine, a Northern California-based dredging, barge and tug service.
Kingswood’s interest in regional California businesses, especially their retail focus, should be an encouraging sign to shoppers and employees alike, Sampson said. He said the company will continue to grow and open new stores under the new leadership, and continue hiring to bolster its 14,000 employees.
Just before the sale, the company reached a tentative agreement with its largest labor union, UFCW 8-Golden State, which represents some 6,000 Save Mart employees. That contract, once ratified, will be honored by new ownership as will its other contracts.
Save Mart employees expecting business as usual
Jacques Loveall, president of UFCW 8-Golden State, said workers will continue to be covered by their contracts under Kingswood.
“We haven’t been notified of any changes which may impact shoppers at this time,” Loveall said in an email interview.
That business-as-usual sentiment was shared by some store workers as well, like Modesto Save Mart service lead Alejandra Guzman, who has worked at the north Oakdale Road store since it opened three years ago.
“I tell them our service is going to stay the same. We want them to have a great experience and that’s not going to change,” she said. “We love our customers and we want them to return. That’s going to stay the same.”
Sampson and McGarry met with employees and have been touring stores since the sale and board appointment. Despite the pandemic and widespread staffing issues, McGarry said they’ve been able to hire and continue to hire workers across its stores. He said COVID-19 and all its fallout have reminded people of the importance of supermarkets like Save Mart in their lives. And that all starts with the friendly face waiting for them at checkout.
“That’s where the legacy of 70 years of family ownership is going to be not only maintained and continued and sustained, but also amplified in this next phase of the company’s history,” McGarry said. “That’s in our DNA. That’s the beauty of our legacy. But I think there’s an exciting period ahead of us.”
