Nearly a month after unexpectedly ceasing operations, Foxtrot Market’s assets have been sold — but there are still plenty of questions about the company’s future.
Holding company Further Point Enterprises, which was already an investor in the upscale convenience store chain, according to its website, acquired Foxtrot’s assets for $2.2 million during a foreclosure sale on Friday, Marc Nathan, senior director of market development for the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, confirmed to C-Store Dive.
Nathan attended the foreclosure sale as an observer, simply to see what the assets would sell for, he said. The law firm he works for was unrelated to his attendance.
The foreclosure sale — conducted by JPMorgan Chase via Microsoft Teams — was for Foxtrot’s inventory, intellectual property, accounts, chattel paper, documents, furniture, fixtures and equipment, general intangibles and goods. These were the assets that JPMorgan had security interest in, according to a public notice prior to the auction.
Retailers may wonder how the assets of Foxtrot, which had over 30 locations and became popular for its fresh food and niche products, only garnered $2.2 million.
Nathan said that he was one of about 170 individuals on the Teams call and that there was “definitely interest” in what was being offered.
But shortly after the meeting began, the moderator announced the $2.2 million offer from Further Point without describing any of the assets in detail, he noted. Nathan said there were no pictures of Foxtrot’s stores shown, and no documentation of the assets presented.
Nathan also said the moderator did not allow anyone to ask questions regarding the assets at stake, and that it appeared JPMorgan was not “entertaining any other bids” outside of Further Point’s offer.
“There was no discussion whatsoever, whether they were going to piece [Foxtrot] out, or what the leases look like or anything,” Nathan said. “It was completely ramrodded through.”
Nathan said the same thing happened when the moderator shifted the call to Dom’s Kitchen & Market, the grocery chain Foxtrot merged with late last year and that also shut down last month.
According to Nathan, the starting bid for Dom’s was $200,000, but there were no details about the grocery chain presented during the auction — not even a link to Dom’s website, he said.
After about 15-20 seconds of silence, the moderator ended the meeting, with no one having purchased Dom’s assets, Nathan said.
From start to finish, the auction lasted “maybe 20 minutes” and was “abrupt” and “rushed,” Nathan said.
Once the call ended, dozens of people remained on the call and expressed their confusion over what had just occurred, according to Nathan. A consensus among those people was that this was a pre-planned event, with Further Point expected to be the buyer all along, he noted. Other attendees expressed their confusion over the auction on social media.
“I think it was clearly designed to be a compliance issue, not in any kind of what I would call a real, legitimate auction,” Nathan said.
All the c-store industry knows right now is that Foxtrot’s assets are owned by Further Point. According to the holding company’s website, some of its other investments include alcohol company Oddbird, BuddhaBerry Frozen Yogurt and supplement maker OutPost Brands.
David Magruder, who is listed as Further Point’s managing partner and only employee on LinkedIn, did not respond by press time when reached to comment. Representatives from JPMorgan also did not respond to a request for comment.
Still to be determined is what Further Point intends to do with the assets from 33 shuttered Foxtrot convenience stores across Chicago; Dallas; Austin, Texas; and Washington, D.C. Over the last couple weeks, products were still seen on shelves inside many locations despite the stores being closed.
“The real question is, can they even reopen?” Nathan said. “How are they going to find staff? How are they going to get inventory? How are they going to clean it up?”
Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed a beverage company as part of Further Point’s investment portfolio.
