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Natural food retailers Sprouts Farmers Market and Henry's Farmers Market will merge operations under the majority ownership and sponsorship of New York-based private equity firm Apollo Management LP. The two natural food retailers, which have a combined 98 stores and more than 7,000 employees, were originally founded by the Boney family and have operated under separate owners for almost a decade.
The combined company will operate under the Sprouts Farmers Market name and will have annual revenues in excess of $1 billion, according to a company statement.
Terms of the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter, were not disclosed.
From an operations perspective, the Boney family will manage the combined company. Ten new stores will open this year.
Andrew S. Jhawar, senior partner at Apollo and co-head of its consumer and retail industry group said, "We are very excited about partnering with Stan Boney, Shon Boney, Doug Sanders and the thousands of employees at Sprouts and Henry's to help reunite these two great companies under the Boney family's leadership.”.

Stan Boney, Sprouts chairman, said the combination of the two companies represents “an exciting chapter in our family's lives, and we look forward to continuing to deliver on our mission of helping America eat healthier, live longer and spend less. Apollo is one of the most experienced and successful private equity firms in the nation and we are excited about their support for our business model and look forward to working together with Andy and his team."
The combination of the Sprouts and Henry’s businesses will occur through an equity investment and recapitalization of the existing Sprouts business by Apollo. A concurrent purchase of the Henry’s business will be made from Commerce, Calif.-based Smart & Final Holdings Corp., an Apollo portfolio company since 2007. Following the transaction, Apollo will be the majority owner of Sprouts and will continue to be the principal equity owner of Smart & Final Holdings.
Apollo Management, LP and its subsidiaries are affiliates of Apollo Global Management, LLC’s investments in retail have included Smart & Final, General Nutrition Centers, Ralphs Grocery Co., Dominick’s Supermarkets and Proffitt’s Department Stores.