Ellwood Thompson's parent company acquired by data center owner
Customers at Ellwood Thompson’s organic grocery were greeted last weekend by half-empty shelves throughout the store.
Employees explained it was temporary. Employees said the Florida-based company that bought Ellwood Thompson’s three years ago was conserving cash in advance of a corporate merger, which employees said they were told would take place at the end of the month.
What the employees didn’t say — or perhaps didn’t know — is that Healthy Choices Wellness Corp. (HCWC) is being acquired by a private equity developer of data centers.
In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing posted before markets opened Tuesday morning, HCWC updated steps it has taken to ease a cash crunch that raises “substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern” for the next 12 months.
In addition to reducing debt, HCWC said it had entered into a definitive “reverse merger” agreement with Host Digital Infrastructure LLC. In such a deal, a private company gains a controlling interest of a publicly traded company, allowing the private company to skip the costly IPO process.
The new CEO of HCWC will be Harmol Samra, who also heads a private equity firm in New York specializing in data center infrastructure.
The SEC filing notes that Host Digital has entered into a 15-year lease with “one of the world’s largest privately held cloud infrastructure” companies. “Host Digital will provide 43 megawatts (“MW”) of critical information technology load capacity at its existing data center facility in northeast Oklahoma,” the filing says.
In the terms of the deal, Host Digital will control 96% of HCWC, which owns 19 organic markets in six states, including Ellwood Thompson’s.
HCWC will hold a special meeting of shareholders to approve the deal on Aug. 27.
On its website, Ellwood Thompson’s describes itself as a mission-driven store that follows the traditions set by local founders who started a small organic store in 1989. The fair trade mural on an exterior wall and a juice bar inside lend it a boho-chic vibe.
“Ellwood Thompson’s is where quality meets purpose, where you can shop with intention, explore new paths to well-being, and feel part of something local and lasting,” the website says.
The Ellwood Thompson’s marketing department did not immediately return a call for comment.
Rick Hood, who sold Ellwood Thompson’s to Healthy Choice in 2023, told Richmond Magazine at the time that he was confident his creation would be in good hands.
Eileen Mellon
Hood could not be reached Tuesday for comment.
This article originally appeared on the Poole Report. This article’s headline has been updated to remove a reference to the stock’s price, which was due to an editing error.
