Belle Foods files for bankruptcy

Published 5:45 pm Monday, July 1, 2013

Belle Foods, which operates a grocery store in Brewton along with 56 other stores in Alabama, Georgia, Florida and Mississippi, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Monday.

The Birmingham-based company purchased the stores from Southern Family Markets just a year ago.

Documents filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama cite a variety of factors for the filing, including higher payroll taxes in 2013 that have led to a “decline in purchases” by the stores’ customer base.

The company recently rebranded its stores in Brewton and Atmore as Belle Foods.