Sprouts Farmers Market

RETAIL r Sprouts Farmers Market >> The color and quality of lighting systems are crucial to present food, especially produce, in the best possible light at the 240 locations of Sprouts Farmers Market. Sprouting Up Sprouts Farmers Market is growing across 13 states from coast to coast at a rate of more than 30 new locations annually. By Russ Gager s vice president of construction, procurement and facilities, Steve Ha- Oklahoma, Georgia, Alabama, Ten- gen is keeping busy with Sprouts Farmers Market’s 36 store open- nessee, Kansas and Missouri. “We op- ings scheduled this year. Last year, he kept busy with 32 store open- erate pretty much within those zones, ings. This pace has helped the company maintain the 14 percent and typically, we open stores across Aannual growth rate that its board of directors set as a goal when the company the entire network,” Hagen says. went public in August 2013. Some of Sprouts’ early expansion company profile “Generally, that’s the expectation – 14 percent organ- was through acquisition of chains Sprouts Farmers Market ic growth,” Hagen says. “This year, we’re a little bit above such as Henry’s Market, Sunflow- www.sprouts.com Headquarters: Phoenix 14 percent because we had the opportunity to take over er Farmers Market and Sun Harvest Employees: 24,000 Specialty: Fresh produce a few of the Haggen stores that closed and convert them Farmers Market. “Today, our current Steve Hagen, VP of con- into Sprouts stores. So that was a few more stores than we expansion is focused on reimagining struction, procurement and facilities: “We wouldn’t pass planned this year.” existing buildings or developing new up a great site over a couple thousand square feet.” Sprouts’ more than 240 stores are located in Califor- sites,” says Hagen, who has been with nia, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Sprouts Farmers Market since 2013. 168 food & drink international • fall 2016 • www.fooddrink-magazine.com Sprouts Farmers Market The Right Site The company values leased locations that are good for retail- ing when deciding where to locate its stores. “Whether it’s good real estate in the area that we want to be in – whether an existing or a new building – is the biggest driving factor,” Hagen says. “Is it really the right site?” Sprouts stores usually are in a retail strip mall with parking in front, but sometimes they are freestanding. Both types of stores are acceptable, and which is used depends on which type of store is available and how good a site it is in. Sprouts’ prototype store measures approximately 30,000 square feet on a single level. “We would prefer every building be our prototype, but if you find a great site where you can’t get that – it might have to be 28,000 square feet – we wouldn’t pass up a great site over a couple thousand square feet,” Hagen says. The Haggen stores that Sprouts took over were 45,000 to 50,000 square feet in size. In cases such as this, Sprouts often will use only 30,000 square feet, build a demising wall and return the extra square footage to the landlord for leasing as another store. “That 30,000 square feet would be the inten- tion for every store, but you can’t always get what you want, especially if you’re taking over an existing building,” Hagen concedes. “If it’s the right site, we can make almost anything in that 30,000-square-foot range work.” Sprouts stores usually are in a retail strip mall or freestanding with parking in front. << Savant Construction, Inc. is a full service General Contractor providing services on a variety of projects throughout the Western United States. Estab- lished in 1989, Savant Construction specializes in the design and construction of commercial projects, retail centers, grocery stores, restaurants and public facilities. Our services include design-build, new ground-up construction, site work and renovations to existing sites and facilities. We are also fully versed in the construction methods required for the LEED certification process. food & drink international • fall 2016 • www.fooddrink-magazine.com 169 RETAIL r Sprouts Farmers Market A Total Gut When Sprouts takes over an existing location, it completely guts the interior down to the raw ground so it can build the store in Sprouts’ prototype design. “We just rip everything out, recycle what we can and start from scratch so we can have a store that looks right and represents a Sprouts,” Hagen says. Even former grocery stores are total- ly gutted. Underground systems such as plumbing usually have to be moved to match Sprouts’ prototype. “So that gets all torn out,” Hagen confirms. “For the most part with rare exceptions, all-new electric and plumbing is installed.” The remodeling of each store in- cludes building a new floor out of high- ly polished, integrally colored concrete with expansion joints sawed in 9-foot- by-9-foot squares. “It’s all poured as one,” Hagen says. “If you don’t put in expansion joints and sawed cuts to create room for expansion, the floor is always going to end up cracking. Con- crete cracks, but you can minimize that by putting in expansion joints.” In food preparation areas, tradition- al concrete is poured and quarry tile adhered on top. “This is to provide the typical finish you would want in a preparation area for food,” Hagen says. Ceil- ings typically are open to the trusses, painted a light tan color, the ductwork left in its original galvanized color and skylights installed. “This just makes the building feel more open,” Hagen says. Most of the stores use convention- al drywall covered with finishes such as paint or a wood similar to the barn feature on the front of the stores. The HVAC systems vary, as do the climates BRR Architecture, Inc. is a national design firm focused in the grocery, retail, hospitality, commercial interiors and industrial markets. Headquar- tered in the Kansas City area, the firm consists of nearly 250 professionals, and has more than 70 licensed architects. BRR has offices in Bentonville, Phoenix, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta and >> Sprouts sells fresh produce and grains from field bins, Austin, as well as satellite offices in Miami, Los barrels and wooden crates. The stores strive to inspire, Angeles and Chicago. educate and empower people to eat healthier. 170 food & drink international • fall 2016 • www.fooddrink-magazine.com Sprouts Farmers Market in which the stores are built. Different regions of the Unit- ed States use different types of HVAC systems, such as heat pumps in the South and swamp coolers in the Southwest. The typical time to remodel a Sprouts store is four months, and to build one from the ground up takes approximately eight months. The company hires general contractors who employ five or six prime subcontractors and from 30 to 50 smaller ones for the many small sections of the store that use the variety of equipment and finishes in today’s grocery stores. Regional Differences Sprouts stores vary in the materials used to build them based on the wide variety of locations, regions and climates in which they are constructed. Most of the regions use block construction. “In Texas, they’re tilt-wall concrete,” Hagen food & drink international • fall 2016 • www.fooddrink-magazine.com 171 RETAIL r Sprouts Farmers Market says. “They always like to use tilt-wall Over the years, since Sprouts was because they do a lot of concrete.” founded in San Diego by the Boney fam- Exteriors are made up of a wide va- ily in 1943, there have been some dif- riety of different trims, from stucco to ferent store formats. The first Sprouts veneers. “It just depends on how that opened in Chandler, Ariz., in 2002, but specific site is designed,” Hagen points since then, the small-box, open-sight- out. “The finished building is often line format has not changed. New stores driven by the city planning or the re- share a similar look, although some quirements of that area. There’s also stores open to the right or left. a wide variety of finishes in the stores “We try to model that prototype lay- based on the area.” out as much as possible,” Hagen says. >> Sprouts offers natural, local and organic foods at favorable prices in a setting that feels like a farmers market. 172 food & drink international • fall 2016 • www.fooddrink-magazine.com Sprouts Farmers Market “We just rip everything out, recycle what we can and start from scratch so we can have a store that looks right.” “There will be times when you can’t Food Fixtures do that and you have to be creative be- Sprouts Farmers Market makes sure its cause the store isn’t prototypical, but stores use energy wisely. Its skylights overall, we try to make them very much reduce the use of artificial lighting. The the same and keep the same authentici- stores’ refrigerator and freezer units ty of design.” have doors and are operated by effi- cient energy management systems, as Natural Foods are the air conditioning units. “We make Sprouts sells fresh produce and grains sure the refrigerated units, freezers and from field bins, barrels and wooden air conditioning system operate at the crates. The stores strive to inspire, ed- highest efficiency,” Hagen emphasizes. ucate and empower every person to Insulation is applied to the walls and eat healthier and live a better life. The ceilings, and all the glass used exten- company is committed to providing sively at the store entrance is insulated.

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