Hannaford was founded in 1883 by Arthur Hannaford as a small produce store along the Portland, Maine waterfront. He was joined in 1902 by his brothers, Howard and Edward, and they incorporated Hannaford Bros. Co. By 1920, the company became a leading produce wholesaler in northern New England. Hannaford then relocated to a new five-story warehouse on Cross Street. In 1939, with the purchase of Tondreau Supermarkets Inc., sponsor of Red & White stores in Maine, Hannaford expanded into the wholesale grocery business. Late in 1944, Hannaford Co. opened its first retail outlet under an equity partnership arrangement with Adjutor Tondreau. By 1960, Hannaford Bros. had constructed a distribution center in South Portland, Maine to better service more retail stores. With the purchase of 31 Sampson's grocery stores in 1966 as well as the 1967 purchase of Progressive Distributors, Hannaford expanded its retail presence. By 1971, the company's earnings topped $1 million. Hannaford continued to rapidly expand throughout the 1970s and 1980s by opening a chain of Wellby Drug Stores, many of which were incorporated into Shop 'N' Save retail stores. By 1987 the company had spread into New York and Massachusetts; that same year sales hit $1 billion. In the 1990s Hannaford began an expansion into the Southeast by purchasing a small Southeastern North Carolinasupermarket chain, Wilson's Supermarkets, which served as the foundation of an expansion of Hannaford stores into the Carolinas and Virginia. In 2000, Delhaize America bought Hannaford; the purchase both eliminated an emerging competitor to its Food Lion chain in the Southeast and expanded Delhaize operations into the Northeast. Some Hannaford locations in North Carolina were sold to Lowes Foods upon the buyout by Delhaize while others were closed. However, the move ended up bringing an even bigger competitor into Food Lion's market when national chain Kroger bought 20 of the redundant stores. The Hannaford name first took over from Shop 'N' Save on private labels in 1996. Five years later, stores in most of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Vermont assumed the name. As of 2006, only a small number of locations continue to use the Shop 'n' Save banner. Independently owned and operated franchises receiving merchandise through Hannaford's wholesale distribution continue to use the Shop 'n' Save name, mainly in smaller communities. In 2001, 5 Grand Union in New York were purchased and converted into Hannaford stores. In 2004, 19 Victory Supermarkets in Massachusetts and New Hampshire also were purchased and converted to Hannaford stores. In 2006, Hannaford Supermarkets launched Guiding Stars, the first storewide nutrition navigation program. The concept of Guiding Stars was born from extensive consumer research that revealed a desire to live healthier lifestyles, but showed confusion understanding the volume and complexity of the nutrition-related information available in the media, advertisements and on food packaging. The rankings are based on U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines. In 2007, 4.2 million Hannaford customer credit card numbers were exposed as a result of a data breach perpetrated by a Russian/Ukrainian hacker group. Delhaize America previously operated 104 Sweetbay Supermarket locations in Florida, which were modeled after Hannaford and sold Hannaford brand products. These stores were sold by the parent company in 2013 to Southeastern Grocers and were converted to Winn-Dixie locations. In 2016, Hannaford and Delhaize merged with Ahold to create Ahold Delhaize. Through the process of the merger, the Federal Trade Commission required 10 Hannaford stores to be divested to other retailers. Eight stores in eastern Massachusetts were sold to Big Y and two stores in the lower Hudson Valley in New York were sold to Tops Friendly Markets.
Locations
Hannaford Supermarkets are found in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and eastern upstate New York. Areas outside Maine with a Hannaford presence include Manchester, New Hampshire; Burlington, Vermont; and Albany, New York. Until 2011, the company regularly marketed numerous products under its own private labels—including products by Richelieu Foods. The company used the Delhaize-standard Home 360 brand from approx. 2011–2014 but has now returned to using simply the "Hannaford" brand name as well as the name Taste of Inspirations. On March 17, 2008, The Boston Globe reported that the company's credit-card processing servers had been compromised for three months. Some 4.2 million credit card numbers were stolen, at least 1,800 of which had been used fraudulently. In August 2009, criminal computer hacker Albert Gonzalez was indicted for the crime.
