Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff writer
Hailed as “great business sense” by at least one company official, a change to the Clovis Albertsons is meant to lead to better operations.
The change may imply new cash registers, touch screen check-outs and shelf tags; but Albertsons personnel will remain relatively intact.
According to a press release from The United Family, the company will be realigned with four Albertsons stores in New Mexico. Aside from Clovis, this will include stores in Carlsbad, Hobbs and Roswell.
Headquartered in Lubbock, The United Family has been a family-owned supermarket chain since it was founded in 1916. It became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alberson’s LLC on Dec. 27, 2013.
Since The United Family has a distribution center in Lubbock, company officials thought it best to use it as the distribution and operational headquarters for the southern New Mexico stores.
The distribution and operational center for these stores is currently in Phoenix, said Robert Taylor, president of The United Family.
“This move makes great business sense,” Taylor said. “With our Lubbock-based distribution center within 200 miles of these cities, we can serve these four stores more efficiently and most effectively.”
“It’s simply a matter of operational responsibility,” said Eddie Owens, director of communications and public relations for The United Family. “Because our distribution center is in Lubbock, geographically speaking, we are much better suited to provide products (and) operational support.”
This will have little effect on Albertsons employees, said Taylor.
“We want to preserve the teams in all of these locations and continue to operate them as Albertsons stores,” he said. There may be changes, however, in the stores’ area supervisors.
Current employees will need to train to use the stores’ new equipment, Taylor said.
The new alignment will begin to take effect in September, the press release states.
