H-E-B buys six sites in North Texas

More than 15 years after Fort Worth foodies swooned over the arrival of Central Market, parent company H-E-B, the stalwart of South and and Central Texas grocery shopping, appears ready to make a big move into North Texas.

The San Antonio-based chain announced Monday that it has acquired six properties in North Texas from Sun Fresh Markets, including a former Tom Thumb store in Grapevine.

H-E-B is “evaluating the feasibility of each site” and “Central Market continues to be the primary format” for North Texas, the news release said.

Sun Fresh Markets, based in Carrollton, is closing the six stores, which were divested in late 2014 by Albertsons and Safeway, Tom Thumb’s parent, to win approval for their merger. In addition to the store at Texas 121 and Hall Johnson Road, four are in Dallas and one is in McKinney.

H-E-B has been buying up property in North Texas for several years, fueling speculation that it was about to jump into the region’s competitive supermarket business. It previously announced plans for a Mansfield H-E-B, reported by the Star-Telegram in June. And late last year, H-E-B bought land in the Glade Parks development in Euless, not far from the Grapevine site it just acquired, and in north Fort Worth at the southeast corner of U.S. 287 and Bond Ranch Road.

H-E-B already has opened stores in Burleson, Waxahachie, Ennis, Granbury, Corsicana and Cleburne. It operates Central Markets in Fort Worth, Southlake, Dallas and Plano.

H-E-B is privately owned by the Butt family. It has more than 350 stores in Texas and northeast Mexico, according to its website.

Sun Fresh also operated a former Tom Thumb store in Bedford, at Texas 121 and Harwood Road, but it was closed earlier this year.

This story was originally published August 15, 2016 at 7:35 PM with the headline "H-E-B buys six sites in North Texas."