Wakefern Food Corp. has closed the acquisition of Morton Williams, a family-owned grocer with 17 stores in Manhattan, the Bronx and Jersey City.
The move will preserve the grocer’s legacy and deep community connections while using the resources of the largest retailer-owned supermarket cooperative in the U.S. Wakefern announced the purchase agreement in August.
“When a brand is so embedded in the community, it’s essential that we preserve that legacy. Wakefern brings the scale and support to help independent operators compete and grow while retaining their local roots that made them successful,” said Wakefern President Mike Stigers.
“As a cooperative made up of family-owned businesses, we also know how to honor that community spirit while delivering the technology and support needed to help grocers succeed in today’s highly competitive marketplace. That is why we are so excited that Morton Williams, a storied Manhattan grocer, is joining Wakefern’s family of brands.”
Customers will find the same neighborhood feel, elevated shopping experience and fresh prepared foods at Morton Williams store, and Wakefern will retain all the team members. Leadership from Morton Williams, including members of the Sloan family who established the Morton Williams brand in the 1970s, also will remain.
As wholly-owned subsidiary of Wakefern, it will operate the 17 stores in the tradition New Yorkers have come to expect, with special emphasis on fresh prepared meals, baked goods, produce and popular private label products from Morton Williams and Wakefern.
“Wakefern is looking to the future with a long-term plan for sustainable growth for the next generations of our membership. That means growing both within our cooperative – with our existing Wakefern members and banners – as well as making new acquisitions and expanding our wholesale distribution network.
The acquisition of Morton Williams is part of our vision for the future, and we are thrilled to welcome Morton Williams to our Wakefern family,” said Wakefern Chairman Sean McMenamin.
The Morton Williams family has owned and operated the stores for three generations. The company was founded in 1952 by brothers Joe and Irving Sloan, with the former’s sons, Morton and William, building upon the business and expanding to supermarkets in the New York City area.
They would go on to reinvent the business again in the 1970s, when they began opening new, reimagined markets in Manhattan. They changed the name of the new stores to Morton Williams and opened locations with kitchens, chefs and a focus on fresh prepared foods.
Carrying on the legacy, Morton Williams is now guided by the third generation – Avi Kaner, Morton Sloan’s son-in-law; David Sloan, his son; and Steven Sloan, the son of William Sloan.
“Morton Williams has always been deeply connected to the neighborhoods we serve, and we’re proud to see that legacy continue under Wakefern’s leadership,” said Avi Kaner, speaking on behalf of the Sloan and Kaner family. “We’re confident that our team members and loyal customers will thrive as part of the Wakefern family. It’s reassuring to know the future of Morton Williams is in such capable and caring hands.”
Kevin McDonnell, formerly president of Wakefern’s wholly-owned subsidiary PRRC Inc., is serving as the Wakefern executive leading Morton Williams. PRRC operates stores under the Price Rite Marketplace banner.
“I look forward to working with the team at Morton Williams to ensure we continue delivering the service and quality the brand is known for and at the same time offering greater value that comes from being part of a cooperative,” McDonnell said.
“The buying power of the cooperative, which has more than 360 stores in nine states, and the legacy of Morton Williams service is a winning combination.”
McDonnell is a 40-year supermarket industry veteran with broad experience in store operations, merchandising, marketing and management.
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Once again, Wakefern shows why it’s the leading co-op in the land, and the leader in the tri state area decades after it came to dominate the region. Despite the Walmarts and Costcos, the Trader Joes and the Aldis, ShopRite dominates, and it has made many families fabulously wealthy.
Once, a while back, I thought our family business, Mayfair Supermarkets, trading under the Foodtown banner, and the largest member of the Twin County Co-op, could catch up to or even surpass Wakefern/ShopRite, our fiercest competitor. Or, if we couldn’t do it, then Wakefern’s spinoff, Pathmark, surely would. That’s not what happened though. Twin County is gone, Mayfair and other Foodtowns sold to Ahold, and Pathmark a ghost.
There is always a time to consider what the finance bros call a ‘liquidity event’ and apparently this is the time for Morton Williams (my family shopped there in Greenwich Village). There comes a time when the need for scale kicks in, and the owners need to take their equity out.
As for me, I sold the company I subsequently grew, Murray’s Cheese, to Kroger, still the nation’s largest conventional chain, and now there are over 1400 Murray’s shops within their superstores across the land. My vision of bringing real cheese to America continues.
So the American dream continues in groceries: immigrants open a store, the next generation builds upon it, and perhaps the third or fourth grows a modern company with great success, until the scale needed to continue that growth necessitates a sale, which therefore constitutes a happy ending for the family that began it generations ago.