Pacific Market: Invest, Sell, or Stay the Same?

Based in Sonoma County, California, Pacific Market was acquired from its founders in 2014, at which time it was a floundering upscale regional supermarket chain. Using skills acquired from turning around failing tech startups, new owner Vasu Narayanan was able to stabilize Pacific Markets and somewhat stanch negative cash flows. Vasu pondered whether to try to sell Pacific Market to another local chain, hire a fresh management team to return the firm to a growth trajectory, or create a path to eventual employee ownership. In any event, a consultant to Vasu insisted that major investments were necessary to grow store volumes by 50 percent from 2018-2021. The case includes data on the U.S. grocery industry and local competition, and regional demographic forecasts through 2022. The case can be used as a graduate level group project in Strategic Management.