Price Cutter parent plans HQ move

Focused on growth and following a landlord change in 2010, the parent company of Price Cutter is planning to make a move into a newly renovated 50,000-square-foot former general store in eastern Greene County.

The employee-owned company – which operates under the banner of Pyramid Foods and has 48 retail grocery stores under names including Ramey’s, Price Cutter, Smitty’s and Food Pyramid – is planning to move into the new digs currently under renovation at the former Deerfield General Store at 1878 S. State Highway 125 in Rogersville.

Pyramid Foods President and CEO Erick Taylor said the move was set in motion two years ago when Jared Enterprises sold the company’s current 30,000-square-foot offices at 336 S. Barnes Ave. to O’Reilly Automotive Inc., a commercial neighbor to the east on South Patterson Ave.

Taylor said he understood O’Reilly had long-term plans to utilize the building space and reached an agreement to vacate the facilities once a new home was secured.

A meeting with Curtis Jared of Jared Enterprises about finding a new headquarters led to Jared’s plans to renovate the Deerfield store, which closed in early 2007. While Jared, chief operating officer of Jared Enterprises, and Taylor declined to disclose lease terms, Taylor said the move gains the grocer 20,000 square feet at roughly the same lease rate as the Springfield headquarters.

Company revenues have climbed in recent years, Taylor said, helping to justify the move to a bigger office facility. He said total revenues are up 150 percent since 2000 when the company posted revenues of roughly $200 million. In 2011, the grocer generated a company record $500 million in revenues, Taylor said.

Rob Marsh, executive director of real estate planning and development for Pyramid Foods, said he’s been working with the project’s general contractor and interior designer – Ozark-based Missouri Supermarket Builders Inc. and Andrea Deckard Interiors LLC, respectively – on the layout for the new office.

“It’s not from the ground up, but it might as well be,” Marsh said, noting the project architect is Bates & Associates Inc. Marsh said the building would comprise 25 offices. He said Pyramid has occupied the offices on South Barnes Avenue since 2004.

Roughly 100 employees, including Pyramid buyers, human resources professionals and administrators, would work out of the new headquarters starting in October, Marsh said.

“We had kind of outgrown our current space and this offers more room to expand. It’s more than we currently need, but it gives us room to grow,” Marsh said.
 
Jared declined to disclose total project costs, but he said he was pleased to be able to work with Pyramid again. He said the headquarters would be the fourth property Jared Enterprises leases to Pyramid.

“We have a good, long-term relationship with the company,” he said.

One property Pyramid Foods soon will lease via Jared Enterprises is the former Smillie’s Market at 1421 S. Glenstone Ave. On Sept. 1, Pyramid takes over the roughly 20,000-square-foot space.

Taylor said the company has yet to decide what it will do with the property. In December, he said the facility was too small for a typical Price Cutter store, and he may sublease the property. He said he took on the store space while renegotiating lease agreements with Jared.