Fresh Market prepares to go public

Greensboro, N.C. The Fresh Market on Monday filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $345 million.

The company, which currently operates 95 stores in the Southeast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions, said in a regulatory filing that its stores are, on average, half or a third of the size of a conventional supermarket, and it aims for a "neighborhood grocer" appeal to shoppers.

Founders Ray and Beverly Berry and other company officers are selling all the shares in the offering. All proceeds from the IPO will go to the shareholders, said the company.

Fresh Market intends to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "TFM." BofA Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs are the lead underwriters on the deal.