Bi-Mart is an employee-owned chain of retailers located exclusively in Oregon, Washington,
and Idaho in the United States. The company was founded in 1955 and is
headquartered in Eugene, Oregon. The company is currently one of the last two
remaining subsidiaries of the defunct Pay 'n Save.
Bi-Mart's first
store opened in Yakima, Washington in 1955 and did not open its second store until
1962. In 1976, it was bought by Pay 'n Save, and beginning in 1984, Bi-Mart's
corporate parent was bought by Thrifty Corporation, which itself was merged
into the former Kmart subsidiary PayLess Drug, culminating with the 1996 purchase
by Rite Aid.
In 1997, Bi-Mart's senior management and a Portland-based
venture capital firm bought the company; they sold it to its employees as
of March 1, 2004 for $94 million, which included $12.5 million contributed from
their 401(k) plan.
In October 2003, Bi-Mart announced it was heading
east and opening stores in Montana and Idaho. They planned 8 stores and the
first store opened in Havre, Montana. The second store opened 3 years later in
Weiser, Idaho.
As of December 2004, the company projects sales for the
fiscal year ending February 28, 2005 of $650 million, compared with $621 million
for the previous year. |
