TOWN AND COUNTRY GROCERS; COMPANY EXPANDS FROM ONE TO 28 SUPERMARKETS IN QUARTER-CENTURY

Work continued last week outside the new Country Mart, which will open in Jackson Sunday.

Alan Twedell, left, and Tina Perdue worked at preparing the video department for the opening of Country Mart.

Bob Hufford has been in the grocery business more than 40 years. Twenty-five of those years have been with Town and Country Grocers of Fredericktown Inc., which operates 28 supermarkets -- 19 of them in Southeast Missouri.

Hufford, Max Penner and Wayne Gott founded the corporation in 1970, when Hufford bought into a store with the latter two in Fredericktown.

"Our goal then and now is to operate supermarkets," said Hufford, president of the grocery chain, which now operates 28 supermarkets in four states -- Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Penner, vice president of Town and Country, and Gott, secretary, also operate an additional 14 stores not connected with the Town and Country group.

Town and Country Grocers operates four divisions with 15 stores in the Town and Country Division: five in Country Mart; three in County Mart; and five in the Warehouse Foods Stores Division.

"We have five Country Marts, with a sixth to open Sunday," said Hufford, a veteran grocery man who started his career as a bagger and carry-out boy in a Springfield supermarket when he was 15.

The sixth Country Mart -- stores of at least 40,000 square feet -- will open 6 a.m. Sunday in Jackson. The new 46,000-square-foot Country Mart at the intersection of Highways 25, 61 and 72, will replace the Town and Country Supermarket at Highway 61 East at Jackson.

"We're proud of this new store," said Hufford. "We feel it will be an asset to us and to the community."

The Jackson Town and Country Supermarket will be closing, and all employees transferred to the new Country Mart, said Linda Kemp, a corporation secretary. The new store will employ between 115 and 130 people.

Jim Kinze, manager of the current Town and Country, will be manager of the new store, which will be open seven days a week from 6 a.m. to midnight.

Kinze has been with the company 17 years, starting at the Dexter store in the meat department. He has managed stores at Clarkton and Charleston before moving to the Jackson operation three years ago.

Town and Country has been in Jackson more than five years.

In October of 1989, the company announced that a new supermarket was planned for the Jackson market. But the company opened at Jackson sooner than planned, in April of 1990, when it purchased Jackson Foodland, a 26,000-square-foot supermarket. Jackson Foodland originally was owned by Piedmont Wholesale Grocer Co.

Long-range plans to construct the new Country Mart continued while Town and Country assumed operations of the former Jackson Foodland.

"The Country Mart concept is to provide a larger variety of products and services at lower every day prices," said Kemp. "In addition to the regular supermarket departments, the new store will have a full-service floral department with delivery, a large video rental department and a catering service."

Country Mart will also honor Mastercard, Visa and Discover.

Additional customer service options will include money orders, check cashing, Western Union, lottery tickets and copying facilities.

Town and Country Supermarkets are found throughout Southeast Missouri, including Advance, Piedmont, Ellington, Bloomfield, Marble Hill, Dexter, Bernie, Malden, Charleston, Doniphan, Park Hills, Ironton and Potosi.

The Town and Country group is observing its 25th anniversary this year.

Hufford, after working as a youngster in supermarkets, was "on the road" as a Nabisco Company salesman during the late 1960s, and called on the supermarket in Fredericktown owned by Penner and Gott.

"We talked, they were looking for another partner, and I bought in," said Hufford. Penner and Gott owned eight stores at the time, but only the Town and Country at Fredericktown was included in the new corporation, which has grown to 28 stores.

"There's a lot of grocery experience in Town and Country today," said Hufford. "The founders all started in the grocery business while they were in their teens."

The company is leaning toward the Country Mart concept.

Remodeling is under way at a Warehouse Food market at Searcy, Ark., to turn it into a Country Mart store

GROCERY GROWTH

Town and Country Grocers group operates 28 stores in four states under the names Town and Country, Country Mart, Country Mart and Warehouse foods Stores. A quarter of a centry ago, the company started with a single store.

Missouri Stores

Jackson

Dexter

Ellington

Piedmont

Fredericktown

Farmington

Advance

Ironton

Potosi

Malden

Marble Hill

Clarkton

Charleston

Doniphan

Bloomfield

Bernie

Arcadia

Park Hills

Poplar Bluff

Arkansas stores

Piggott

Jonesboro

Searcy

Paragouldl

Harrison

Kentucky store

Wickliffe

Tennessee stores

Jackson

Dyersburg