Calif. Hispanic Independent Expanding to Colorado

PASADENA, Calif. -- Liborio Markets, a small but growing Hispanic grocery operator based here, broke ground earlier this week for its first Colorado store and future prototype, set to open this summer and being built in Commerce City on the site of a former King Soopers.

The new store will be called Rancho Liborio, according to the Denver Post. Liborio Markets has five stores in California and one in Las Vegas. Officials said at the groundbreaking they plan to open three stores in Colorado this year and four more in 2007; and they have set their sights on national expansion.

Rancho Liborio will carry grocery items from a variety of countries, along with a panaderia, or bakery; a carniceria, or butcher shop; and a tortilleria.

The company's second Colorado location will be in Aurora. Meanwhile, Liborio Markets is negotiating for another former King Soopers store at East Colfax Avenue and Havana Street.

More than one in five residents of metro Denver were Latino in 2004, according to the report. Nash Finch operates its three remaining Hispanic-centric Avanza stores in the area, but has been seeking a buyer for the stores since 2004.