Quality Foods has been sold to Jim Pattison

Longstanding Vancouver Island grocery store chain Quality Foods (QF) and CFIG retailer member, has been sold to billionaire Jim Pattison.

The announcement was made Friday by Quality Foods founders John Briuolo and Ken Schley, who are transferring their controlling interest in the company to the Jim Pattison Group. The Jim Pattison Group first purchased a non-controlling interest in Quality Foods eight years ago.

Briuolo and Schley contacted suppliers and mailed letters to customers letting them know there would be no changes in the daily operation of the grocery.

Read letter here.

“Day-to-day operations will be led by Quality Foods co-founder Noel Hayward in the tradition of putting our QF customers, our QF people and our QF communities first,” Schley said in the release. “It’s a people-based business and John and I leave the company in the capable hands of some of the most talented people in the industry.”

Schley, Briuolo and Noel Hayward started Quality Foods in 1982, opening the first store in Qualicum Beach. Hayward will continue leading day-to-day operations, and assumes the role of company president for Quality Foods.

The transaction involves 13 stores and a little more than 1,000 employees.

Read full story here.