Scott Moses

Scott specializes in retail sector strategic and financial advice, with a focus on mergers, acquisitions, sales and divestitures of traditional and specialty food and drug retailers and restaurants.

Scott has advised clients in some of the largest and most significant retail M&A transactions over the past two decades, with a combined transaction value of more than $50 billion. He has been named to the “Top 50: Americas M&A Dealmakers” list by Global M&A Network (2013) and “40 Under 40” lists of promising finance professionals by IDD (2011) and The M&A Advisor (2015).

Scott’s numerous food retail clients, many of which are family-owned, have included: C&S Wholesale Grocers (on its pending $1.77 billion acquisition of SpartanNash); Roche Bros. (on its sale to Bozzuto’s owner); Fresh Encounter (on its sale to SpartanNash); Albertsons (on its terminated merger with Kroger); Kroger (on its $800mm acquisition of Roundy’s); KKR (on its sale of Cardenas Markets to Heritage Grocers Group / Apollo); El Rancho (on its sale to Heritage Grocers Group / Apollo and its sale of a growth investment by Albertsons); Sprouts Farmers Market (on its merger with Henry’s Farmers Market / Apollo); Sunflower Farmers Market (on its merger with Sprouts Farmers Market / Apollo); New Seasons Market (on its sale to Emart / Good Food Holdings); Rite Aid Lenders (on its sale of Michigan and Ohio Assets to Walgreens); FreshDirect (on its split-off from Getir); Mercatus (on its merger with Stor.ai); Boxed.com (on its sale of Spresso to BlackRock and its merger with Seven Oaks Acquisition Corp.); Imperfect Foods (on its sale to Misfits Market); Baked By Melissa (on its sale of a growth investment by Tiff’s Treats); Price Chopper / Market 32 (merger with Tops Markets); Save Mart (on its sales to Oak Street Real Estate Capital and Kingswood Capital Management); United Supermarkets (on its sale to Albertsons); Save A Lot (on its ~$1bn recapitalization and relicensing sales); Southeastern Grocers (on its sale of Bi-Lo stores to Ahold Delhaize and Alex Lee; its sale of Bi-Lo Rx assets to CVS Health and Walgreens; and its sale of Winn-Dixie Rx assets to CVS Health); Fairway Markets (on its sale of stores to Village Super Market, Amazon, Bogopa and Key Food); Kings Balducci’s (on its sale to Albertsons); Lucky’s Market (on its sale of stores to various acquirers including Aldi, Publix, Southeastern Grocers, Dollar General and the founders, Bo and Trish Sharon, et. al., as well as the original sale of a meaningful equity stake to Kroger); Fred’s (on its sale of Rx assets to Walgreens and CVS); Best Market (on its sale to Lidl US); Martin’s Super Markets (on its sale to SpartanNash); Supervalu (on its sale of Shop ‘N Save assets to Schnuck Markets); Apollo (on its $305mm acquisition of Qdoba); Central Grocers (on its sale of Strack & Van Til to Indiana Grocery Group and its sale of its DC to Supervalu); Marsh Supermarkets (on its sales to Kroger and Fresh Encounter); Mi Pueblo (on its sale to KKR / Cardenas); Haggen Food & Pharmacy (on various transactions including the sale of its core business to Albertsons; the sale of its non-core stores to Smart & Final, Albertsons, Gelson’s, Sprouts, Stater Bros., 99 Ranch and Bristol Farms, et. al.; its previous operating company sale to Comvest Partners, its family-owned real estate sale to Merlone Geier and Rx assets sale to Walgreens); Pro’s Ranch Markets (on its sale of its California Region stores to Vallarta); and Weis Markets (on its sale of SuperPetz to Petco).

Scott also worked on Cerberus’ acquisition of Albertson’s “non-core” stores (as part of a $17.4 billion acquisition consortium); Ahold’s $7.1 billion sale of U.S. Foodservice to KKR and CD&R; Jean Coutu’s $3.4 billion sale of Eckerd Drugs and Brooks Pharmacy to Rite Aid; Caremark’s $22 billion merger with CVS; and Seven & I’s $1.3 billion take-private of 7-Eleven; GameStop’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Electronics Boutique and GameStop’s $700 million spin-off from Barnes & Noble.

Scott was previously the Head of Food, Drug and Specialty Retail Investment Banking at Sagent Advisors, prior to which he worked in the retail investment banking groups at JPMorgan, Citigroup and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (Wasserstein Perella).

Scott has been quoted numerous times as a sector thought leader in various business and grocery media outlets, including Bloomberg, CNN, Forbes, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, Food Dive, Progressive Grocer, The Shelby Report, Supermarket News and Winsight Grocery.

Not-For-Profit Affiliations

Scott sits on the Board of Directors of UpLift Solutions, a national nonprofit organization that works with food retailers, governments and other constituents to bring full-service grocery stores to underserved markets across the country. He is also a Fellow of the Culinary Institute of America.