🌾 Lotus Foods Raises $22.5M For More Regen Rice

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Thirty-year-old Lotus Foods has weathered plenty of challenges with minimal outside investment. But today, the regenerative and heirloom rice, noodle and ramen producer is going after growth, announcing it has raised $22.5 million from San Francisco-based firm Grounded Capital to “scale its impact,” Lotus CEO Andrew Burke told Nosh. 

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Kroger and Albertsons have released the full list of planned divestments to C&S Wholesalers – including 579 stores, six distribution centers and one production plant. The move comes after the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) claimed in a lawsuit that the plan included a “hodgepodge” of unconnected stores.

🛒 The majority of the stores are in the West including Washington State (124), Arizona (101), California (63) and Oregon (62) with a scattering of locations throughout the rest of the country.

🤨 It remains to be seen if releasing the details of the planned divestiture will stave off the various lawsuits the grocery mega-merger is facing, but it appears to give credence to the two grocery stores’ claims that the stores being divested are not random.

🏪 The majority of the stores are Albertsons’ chains, like Safeway and Vons, as well as Kroger banners Mariano’s in Illinois and QFC in the Pacific Northwest.

📞 The two grocery chains started notifying staff at the affected locations, according to a Bloomberg News story.

Go Deeper: 166 Stores and Support Assets Added To Updated Divestiture Plan With C&S

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