Harps Refinancing

Employee-owned Harps Food Stores Inc., through its Concord Food Stores LLC entity, recently obtained two loans totaling $98 million for refinancing of all its 50-plus stores in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri, said Roger Collins, president, chairman and CEO of the Springdale company.
Harps, which reported 1,250 full-time employees to come in at No. 24 on the Business Journal’s annual list of the area’s largest employers in 2006, recently purchased Dillon Stores Co. in Prairie Grove for an undisclosed amount.
The loans came from separate lending institutions. An $80 million loan was obtained from Bank of America and an $18 million loan came from Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., one of the top wholesale grocery operations in the country that is based in Kansas City.