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| Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. | |
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| Type | Private |
| Founded | 1931 |
| Headquarters | Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Key people | Frank Lazaran, President and CEO |
| Industry | Retail (Grocery) |
| Products | Grocery |
| Employees | 15,000 |
| Website | www.marsh.net |
Marsh Supermarkets is a retail food chain headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with stores throughout Indiana and parts of Ohio.
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History
Founded in 1931 in Muncie, the company went public in 1953 and has since grown to 69 locations. Marsh also owns and operates 37 LoBill Foods and Marsh Hometown Market stores, 8 O'Malia's Food Markets, 162 Village Pantry convenience stores, and 2 Arthur's Fresh Markets. Marsh also operates Crystal Food Services, Primo Banquet Catering and Conference Centers, The Cafe Group, Butterfield Custom Food Production, Capitol Vending, Floral Fashions, McNamara Florist and Enflora Flowers for Business.[1]
One of Marsh's most distinguishing features has been its innovation and early adoption of retail technology[2]. On June 26, 1974, a Marsh location in Troy, Ohio, became the first grocery store in the world to use a bar code scanner.
Sale and acquisition
Citing recent losses and increased competition, Marsh announced on November 29, 2005, that it had engaged Merrill Lynch to investigate the possible sale of the company. In April 2006 the company signed a letter of intent to be purchased by an affiliate of Sun Capital Partners, a Florida-based investment firm that specializes in leveraged buyouts. The deal would allow Sun Capital to purchase all outstanding Marsh shares for $11.13 per share, for a total of approximately $88 million. [3].
On September 27th MSH Supermarkets, Inc., an affiliate of Sun Capital, completed the acquisition of Marsh Supermarkets, Inc. (Nasdaq: MARSA) (Nasdaq: MARSB) (Marsh) for a total purchase price of approximately $325 million. Frank Lazaran, a former senior executive with more than 30 years of regional supermarket experience, has been appointed President and CEO of Marsh, effective immediately, as a result of Don Marsh's previously announced resignation.
On October 19, 2006, President and CEO Frank Larazan announced a series of store closings to be completed by Thanksgiving, as well as another round of job cuts at the corporate headquarters. Seven LoBill Foods stores, two Arthur's Markets stores, two O'Malia's Food Markets, one Marsh Store, and an unknown quantity of Village Pantry stores will be closed. The V.P. stores closed immediately.
In June 2007, Sun Capital Partners announced that they would be splitting Village Pantry from Marsh. It will continue with its headquarters in the Marsh headquarter building, but will report directly to Sun Capital Partners.[4]
In May of 2008, Marsh began moving its headquarters to two of its warehouses. One is located in the former headquarters and non foods warehouse in Yorktown Indiana. The other is the Franklin Road facility in Indianapolis Indiana. Few employees remain on the first floor of the headquarters located in Fishers, Indiana, which is in the process of being leased after a planned lease fell through with Roche Diagnostics because Marsh failed to complete their part in the deal. Also during this time Village Pantry LLC completed their move to a new headquarters on Shadeland Avenue, just a few miles away from the former Marsh Headquarters.
In July of 2008, Marsh completed 70 store remodels and refreshes, either to Marsh Hometown Markets, or Marsh the Marketplace. The company plans to remodel more before the end of the calendar year.
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