Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, has signed a definitive agreement to make an equity investment in Grocery Outlet, a grocery retailer with over 135 stores in the Western US.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Headquartered in Berkeley, California, Grocery Outlet is a third-generation family-owned business that was founded in 1946 by Jim Read. Today the company is led by co-chief executive officers MacGregor Read and Eric Lindberg.
Grocery Outlet is able to offer brand name products up to 60 per cent below traditional retailers by purchasing discounted surplus inventory directly from more than 2,500 grocery manufacturers. Its stores are managed by local, independent operators.
“We believe Grocery Outlet has a unique operating model that offers customers tremendous values on brand names they trust in a friendly, high quality shopping environment. Over the past few years, Grocery Outlet has successfully invested in broadening its product offering, improving its marketing efforts, and opening new stores,” says Chris Hadley, managing director of Berkshire Partners. “We are excited to partner with the Read family and the management team of Grocery Outlet, and believe the company is very well positioned for future growth.”
Berkshire’s prior transactions include National Vision, an operator of value-oriented vision centres, Party City, a retailer of party goods, and Savers, a retailer of secondhand merchandise.
