Earth Fare, an Asheville-based supermarket that opened its doors in 1975, has announced it will be closing all stores.

The company said all employees have been notified of the impending closure of the company’s stores and corporate office.

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The announcement comes a little more than a year after Earth Fare opened a store in Wilmington.

“Earth Fare has been proud to serve the natural and organic grocery market, and the decision to begin the process of closing our stores was not entered into lightly,” the company said in a press release on Feb. 3, 2020. “We’d like to thank our Team Members for their commitment and dedication to serving our customers, and our vendors and suppliers for their partnership.”

Earth Fare cited financial stress as one of the reasons for its closure.

“While many of these initiatives improved the business, continued challenges in the retail industry impeded the company’s progress as well as its ability to refinance its debt. As a result, Earth Fare is not in a financial position to continue to operate on a go forward basis,” the company explained in a release. “As such, we have made the difficult, but necessary decision to commence inventory liquidation sales while we continue to engage in a process to find potential suitors for our stores.”

Earth Fare encouraged shoppers to take advantage of sales at nearby locations.