New Seasons Market is a chain of internationally owned grocery stores operating in the Portland, Oregon metro area, southwestern Washington, and northern California. Some of the products offered are organic and produced locally in the Pacific Northwest, but conventional groceries are also sold.
Founded locally in 1999, the company was majority acquired by private equity firm Endeavour Capital in 2013 and purchased California-based New Leaf Community Markets in 2013. In 2019, it sold to Good Food Holdings, a subsidiary of South Korean retail conglomerate E-mart.
The company currently operates 19 stores in the greater Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, including Hillsboro, Beaverton, Happy Valley, Vancouver, Tualatin, and Lake Oswego; and one store in San Jose, California. The company has faced criticism and a worker unionization drive starting in 2022 has led 5 Portland-area stores to vote to unionize and the National Labor Relations Board to charge New Seasons Market with unfair labor practices in regard to anti-union activity.
History
New Seasons was founded in Portland, Oregon, in 1999 by three families of 50 people. By 2008, it had grown to nine stores and about 1,800 employees. By November 2013, New Seasons had grown to 15 stores and 3,000 employees, when it purchased California-based New Leaf Community Markets and New Leaf founder Scott Roseman joined the New Seasons Board.
In November 2013, Endeavour Capital invested $17.5M in New Seasons Market, according to SEC filings. Bradaigh Wagner and Stephen Babson, managing directors at Endeavour, now sit on the board of New Seasons Market. In 2013, New Seasons became the first grocery store in the world to be certified as a B Corporation. B Corp certification is issued by global non-profit B Lab to for-profit companies meeting social sustainability, environmental performance, accountability, and transparency standards. The company earned re-certification in 2015 and 2017. In December 2017, New Seasons Market employees and the Northwest Accountability Project asked B Lab to review the company's certification based on claims of anti-union activity and Endeavour's financial ties to the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust.
In February 2018 CEO, Wendy Collie stepped down amid a failed expansion into California and an active employee union organizing campaign. Also in February 2018, two New Leaf stores in California ended their franchisee relationship with the company citing “big changes at the company”.
In December 2019, parent company Endeavour Capital announced that it would be selling the grocery chain to E-mart, specifically to its subsidiary, Good Food Holdings, in a sale transaction that was finalized in early 2020. Details of the transaction include the retention of CEO Forrest Hoffmaster who will continue running the business, the continuance of the organization as a B Corp, the halt of existing plans for expanding the chain, and the closure of the store located in the Ballard neighborhood in Seattle. Nancy Lebold joined New Seasons Market as CEO in April 2021, bringing experience in operations, merchandising and procurement from grocers including Kroger's Food 4 Less and WinCo Foods.
In May 2022, employees at stores in the Portland metropolitan area began attempts towards seeking unionization. Employees cited "changes to the company's culture and business ethics" as primary reasons behind why they began organizing. In late May 2022, New Seasons hired Ogletree Deakins, a law firm that often assists companies in campaigns against union drives, claiming the firm would help them "navigate the nuances of federal labor law.". In August 2022 survey results released by Forbes Magazine in collaboration with Statista, the company was ranked 3rd overall out of employers in Oregon.
The National Labor Relations Board charged New Seasons with unfair labor practices in January 2023 after employees in collaboration with the United Food & Commercial Workers Local 555 filed complaints and claimed that the company had "unlawfully threatened to rescind benefits and rewards to employees that they had been receiving in the event the employees unionized."