Stater Bros. Markets was able to expand well beyond Inland Southern California 15 years ago when the area’s signature retail chain got Wall Street’s help to finance the significant expansion.
This month marked an end to that era when Stater Bros. signed a new credit agreement. The Inland area’s largest private-sector employer announced Wednesday during its quarterly earnings report that it will “significantly reduce” the interest payments it’s been making to service the debt it took on in 1999.
Stater Bros. bought 43 former Albertsons and Lucky stores that year because the merger involving those chains led to a federal regulatory agency ordering the sale of a number of locations. The grocery chain, headquartered in San Bernardino, went to the bond market to finance those purchases.
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