After 100 years, the Winn-Dixie Company has big plans for Florida

• After being acquired by Aldi, many Winn-Dixie stores were bought back by private investors to form The Winn-Dixie Company.
• The company will now focus primarily on its home state of Florida, closing stores elsewhere.
• The chain has introduced a new slogan, "Bring Home More Good," and is remodeling stores for a more modern experience.

It's been a wild year and a half for Florida-based Winn-Dixie, now entering its second century in business.

In 2024, discount grocery chain Aldi U.S. acquired Southeastern Grocers Inc., which owned Winn-Dixie and Harvey's Supermarket, and quickly began converting its new stores into Aldi's smaller, no-frills format. But within a year, a new consortium of private investors led by the CEO of the former company bought back many of the stores to form a new company.

As of Wednesday, Jan. 21, that new company is officially called The Winn-Dixie Company and it has big plans for the Sunshine State, where the chain that became Winn-Dixie was founded in Miami in 1925.

“This is a defining moment - more than a name change, it proudly declares who we are and where we’re headed," Anthony Hucker, Chairman and CEO of The Winn-Dixie Company said in a release. "Winn-Dixie has been part of feeding families and enriching communities for generations. Becoming The Winn-Dixie Company brings a deeply rooted company name behind our shared purpose of empowering people to feed and enrich their communities."

Winn-Dixie to refocus on Florida, adds new slogan

After getting back a slew of Winn-Dixie stores last year, the company announced in October it would close all of its stores outside of Florida and Georgia to refocus on Florida. It also announced plans to remodel dozens of existing locations to make more welcoming community stores with a larger liquor store portfolio, more store-branded products such as the return of fan-favorite Lip Lickin' Chicken.

It also debuted a new, brighter logo and a new tagline. The grocery store chain that has said over the years, "We're Right For You," "America's Supermarket," "The Meat People," "The Real Deal" and "It's a Winn Win!" is now sporting the slogan, “Bring Home More Good.”

In November, Winn-Dixie reopened its St. Cloud store after remodeling it to bring a "more modern, locally relevant shopping experience" including new conveniences customers have come to expect from other chains, such as third-party online grocery delivery and return kiosks.

The company also acquired three Hitchcock’s Markets to convert to Winn-Dixie locations. One of them, in Williston, opened Dec. 6.

"Winn-Dixie’s story is rooted in Florida, its historic home state," the release said.

Where are the new Winn-Dixie locations opening?

The next two new stores to open will be in the former Hitchcock's Market locations:

• Alachua: 15560 NW US Hwy 441, expected to open by summer 2026
• Keystone Heights: 7380 State Route 100, expected to open by summer 2026

Florida's Publix, Aldi, Trader Joe's and Sprouts expanding quickly

The chain may have an uphill battle. Winn-Dixie has name recognition from over 100 years in the state, but Florida has become a hot spot for grocery store chains with Lakeland-based Publix remodeling its stores into larger, more customer-friendly spaces, upscale chains like Trader Joe's and Sprouts expanding into the state, and Aldi exploding with more than 60 new Florida locations in 2025 (most of them converted Winn-Dixies) and more planned for this year.

Less than a year later, a consortium of private investors led by Anthony Hucker, the CEO and president of the former company, and C&S Wholesale Grocers, a wholesale supplier that served Winn-Dixie, bought the company back and formed a new one. Aldi kept the approximately 220 stores it had already converted or was in the process of converting.

Winn-Dixie's history in Florida

• 1925: W.M. Davis and his four sons, J.E., A.D., M. Austin and Tine W. Davis, open a grocery store in Miami.
• 1934: After W.M. Davis' death his two oldest sons, J.E. and A.D., each inherit a third of the company. The two younger brothers split the rest.
• 1939: The Davis brothers acquire the 70-store Winn & Lovett Grocery Co. and relocate the headquarters to Jacksonville.
• 1955: Winn & Lovett Grocery Co. acquires the Dixie-Home Market chain, renames as Winn-Dixie.
• 1993: J.E. Davis dies at 85. His son, A. Dano Davis, takes over as company chairman and principal executive officer.
• 2001: Winn-Dixie hits 1,153 stores in five southern states and the Bahamas, the most it will ever have.
• 2004: Sales begin to droop. The company goes through four presidents in six years and closes stores.
• 2005: Winn-Dixie files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, which wipes out the value of all stock in the company, ending the Davis family's ownership.
• 2006: Winn-Dixie emerges from bankruptcy and is allowed to issue 54.5 million shares of new stock to creditors. It remains a Fortune 500 company, ranking 305th with $7.878 billion in revenue in 2006.
• 2011: Bi-Lo LLC, a South Carolina grocery store chain, agrees to purchase the Winn-Dixie chain for $560 million.
• 2015: Bi-Lo Holdings changes its name to Southeastern Grocers and announces a plan to lay off 250 corporate employees.
• 2016: Southeastern Grocers starts to convert dozens of stores into Harvey's Supermarkets.
• 2017: Anthony Hucker succeeds Southeastern Grocers' former president and chief executive, Ian McLeod.
• 2017: Winn-Dixie announces plans to close 19 stores throughout the Southeast.
• 2018: Southeastern Grocers, Inc. files for bankruptcy protection with plans to cut debt and close 94 underperforming stores across seven states.
• 2020: Southeastern Grocers purchases eight Earth Fare stores across Florida to convert to Winn-Dixies.
• 2021: Southeastern Grocers launches its first stand-alone WDs Wine, Beer and Liquor store in Jacksonville.
• 2022: Southeastern Grocers opens a Winn-Dixie supermarket in St. Johns County, its first store built from the ground up in 10 years.
• 2023: Southeastern Grocers announces plans to sell 400 Winn-Dixie and Harvey's stores to ALDI.
• 2024:Aldi buys Southeastern Grocers Inc, begins converting the stores to Aldis.
• 2025: In the year of Winn-Dixie's 100th anniversary, a consortium of private investors, led by Hucker and C&S Wholesale Grocers, reacquires the company, minus the stores Aldi had already converted or was in the process of converting. The new company takes back about 170 grocery stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, as well as the existing Winn-Dixie liquor store business that Aldi left alone.
• 2026: Southeastern Grocers renames itself to The Winn-Dixie Company.

C. A. Bridges is a journalist for the USA TODAY Network-Florida's service journalism Connect team. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday day by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY.

Beth Reese Cravey, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union, contributed to this story.