May 13--A Wisconsin company that operates Piggly Wiggly and Butera Market stores acquired the real estate and assets for three remaining Joe Caputo Sons grocery stores at auction Thursday. The $32 million deal is pending court approval.
Property and assets of the financially troubled Caputo Sons stores were auctioned at the Hyatt Regency Rosemont. Piggly Wiggly Midwest, which is owned by the Butera family, acquired the stores in Algonquin, Des Plaines and Palatine, which total about 267,000 square feet of retail space on 30 acres.
On Friday, Paul Butera, chairman and CEO of Piggly Wiggly Midwest, said he intended to keep all three stores operating with the same employees -- with some improvements in the center of the stores.
"They've done a very good job with the deli, meat and produce, not so much with the grocery (department)," said Butera, 73, who's been in the Chicago grocery business for decades.
It's yet to be determined whether the stores will continue to operate under the Caputo Sons banner, Butera said. They could be renamed Piggly Wiggly or something else entirely. Butera said his firm may eventually move the Des Plaines store to a larger shopping center a half block away, part of the real estate purchased in the auction.
"I'm open to keeping the same two brothers (Vito and Nat Caputo) to run the business, with my supervision, of course," Butera said.
Caputo Sons -- which has no business affiliation to Angelo Caputo's Fresh Markets or Caputo Cheese Market -- had its assets frozen earlier this year by a federal judge because of a $3.6 million debt owed to produce wholesaler Anthony Marano Co.
In February, U.S. District Judge Samuel Der-Yeghiayan ordered Caputo Sons to turn over a full accounting of the company's liabilities and assets to Marano's attorney if the debt wasn't paid within seven days. He also gave Marano the power to manage the "continued operation and/or liquidation" of Caputo Sons stores until the debt was paid in full.
"Our goal was to maximize the value of these assets with minimal disruption to the ongoing store operations," Robert Marcus, Marano's attorney and the court-appointed trustee overseeing the auction process, said in a statement Thursday. "This process resulted in the best possible outcome for the communities, employees and patrons of these locations."
Most of the stores owned and operated by Piggly Wiggly Midwest are in Wisconsin. Butera, former chairman of a Chicago area grocery cooperative called Certified Grocers Midwest, which has since merged with Central Grocers Cooperative, calls himself "the oldest grocer in Chicago."
