Sprouts Farmers Market and Sunflower Farmers Market have completed their proposed merger, and three new Arizona stores are planned.
The Phoenix Business Journal reports that plans call for opening a new store in Ahwatukee in September and another in Phoenix and Flagstaff in early 2013. Each store will hire about 80 people.
While company officials would not comment on how much it will cost to add those three stores, Kim Rockley, a spokeswoman for Sprouts, told the Journal that the stores are filling in some previously occupied real estate.
Phoenix-based Sprouts is projecting 2012 annual revenue to hit $2 billion. The combined company currently operates 144 stores and employs 11,000. In Arizona, the company operates 15 Sprouts and seven Sunflower stores.
The store conversions from Sunflower to Sprouts will begin the second week of July in Arizona, Rockley added.
The stores will receive new interior and exterior signage, updated fixtures and an expanded merchandise mix.
The addition of the Sunflower stores expands Sprouts’ geographic footprint to Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma, and further extends its presence in Arizona, California, Colorado and Texas.
Sprouts’ headquarters will remain in Phoenix. Sunflower’s corporate headquarters in Phoenix and Boulder will be consolidated into the Sprouts office.
The companies had signed their agreement to merge in March.
