The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, Inc.

Montvale, NJ United States

  (NYSE: GAP)

Company Description

Once one of the biggest baggers of groceries in the US, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (A&P) has been reduced to a shrinking handful of regional grocery chains. It now runs about 320 supermarkets in six eastern states. In addition to its mainstay 90-store A&P chain, the grocer operates several others, including the The Food Emporium, Waldbaum, Best Cellars, and Food Basics chains in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. A&P acquired its longtime rival in the Northeast, Pathmark Stores, for about $1.4 billion in 2007, but the purchase failed to reverse A&P's lagging fortunes. Indeed, A&P in 2012 emerged from 15 months in Chapter 11 bankruptcy after a financial restructuring and closing 75 stores.