<p>In a conference call with investors last month, The Fresh Market's CEO, Craig Carlock, discussed the company’s expansion strategies.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Carlock described recently opened stores in Sacramento and Houston as having "faced meaningful profitability hurdles." Could this indicate heavy competition in the area? Sacramento is a very competitive market, with grocers including Sprouts, Trader Joe's, Raley's, Safeway, Whole Foods, and several others. Houston also proved difficult, with stores such as H-E-B offering steep competition.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"In Sacramento and Houston, however, we aimed to give ourselves a jump-start in the markets and accelerate brand building by opening several stores in a relatively short period of time," said Carlock.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"In Houston, we entered the market by leasing 4 desirable sites, with a plan to open these stores within a few weeks of each other. ...we believe that the close proximity of 2 of our Houston stores is weighing on their profitability. As a result, we will close 1 store, River Oaks, in the Houston market."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">"As a result of our experience in Sacramento and Houston... we will be taking a more cautious approach to entering new major metropolitan markets."<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Regarding future expansion plans, he also said that 1 store in a Houston suburb and 3 stores in the Dallas-Fort Worth area are planned. Each of these deals are planned to be different in structure and cost from existing Houston stores.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">While these statements leave much to the imagination, we can assume that the continuing path of expansion in Texas means that The Fresh Market expects to be able to compete with its rivals in these regions.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">How will these new stores be different in structure to existing Houston locations? This remains to be seen, but clearly the company has something fresh in mind.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.thefreshmarket.com/" target="_new"> The Fresh Market </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
