Schenectady

After touting the Price Chopper brand for more than 40 years, the Golub Corp. will launch an extensive renovation of its stores under the new name Market 32 in a plan that will take years to complete.

The name change will be accompanied by a $300 million investment over the next five years, with one-third of that money being spent in the greater Capital Region, CEO Jerry Golub said.

The chain made the announcement at a news conference Tuesday morning at its Schenectady headquarters.

The new name was derived from the fact that the company was founded by brothers Ben and Bill Golub in 1932, said Jerry Golub, grandson of Ben Golub.

"Low prices will be at the forefront of what we continue to do," Jerry Golub said. "It's our intent to eventually change over all our stores. That entire process will probably take eight or nine years."

Price Chopper's stores in Clifton Park Shopper's World and Wilton will be the first two in the region to undergo renovations including the name change. Those stores are scheduled to be completed by April.

Sutton, Mass., will have the first new store built under the Market 32 name, Golub said.

Another 10 to 15 stores will be converted over the next 18 months and more than half of the 135-store chain will undergo the rebranding within five years.

For now, the company's Market Bistro by Price Chopper in Latham, unveiled last year as the next-generation supermarket, will keep that name, said Executive Chairman Neil Golub. That store, which places a heavy focus on ready-to-go and prepared foods, informed some of the changes to be made throughout the chain, company officials said.

Besides the name change, the supermarket chain will give its stores a new design. Though the corporate leaders declined to detail specifics, they shared an image of the what the revamped Wilton store will look like that showed a dark brown-and-gray exterior with five oversize photos and the new brand name.

"We are keeping those plans very close," Jerry Golub said. He said the revamped stores would have "a different personality."

"Clifton Park will have elements from Market Bistro," he said, adding that the new concepts will have to be adapted to the size of each store. He also said the company's new store in Watervliet contains some elements of the new approach.

"We actually have a few stores we consider bridges from where we have been to where we are going," Golub said. He cited the Watervliet, Loudonville, Chatham, Warrensburg, Little Falls and Webster, Mass., stores.

The chain also will renovate its urban stores in Albany on Madison Avenue and Delaware Avenue, Jerry Golub said, but those stores will not be renamed immediately. The chain will begin with some of its suburban stores first.

"We need those robust stores to introduce the Market 32 concept," he said.

The new name is meant to be an evolution that reflects the changing nature of the highly competitive grocery business. While Price Chopper is a familiar name in the Capital Region, Neil Golub said, it does not convey the image the company wants as it expands beyond the region.

The words "by Price Chopper" will remain in the logo of the new name as customers become familiar with it, Jerry Golub said. The goal is eventually to remove the Price Chopper name from the stores and logo.

"This is a slow migration," said Chief Operating Officer Scott Grimmett. "For us, the challenge will be how the two brands work together."

The new name came after the chain talked to its customers and researched alternatives.

"Certainly, we didn't wake up one day and decide that was the right name," Grimmett said. "We engaged our customers. We asked them for input."

He said focus groups, surveys and social media were used to get feedback.

This is far from the first name change in the company's history.

The first store opened in Green Island was called Public Service Market. The second, opened by the Golub brothers in Schenectady, bore the Central Market name that the chain used for decades.

In 1972, the company converted its Pittsfield, Mass., store to the Price Chopper name before rebranding all its stores the following year. The Pittsfield store will convert to the new name at the same time as the Wilton and Clifton Park supermarkets.

The stores will remain open as they are converted, Neil Golub said.

"If you do it right, people come in and get excited about the changes that are occurring in the store," he said. "You just have to make sure they can still find the bread."

tobrien@timesunion.com • 518-454-5092 • @timobrientu