History
The company was founded in 1872 in Milwaukee as Smith, Roundy & Co. by William E. Smith, Judson Roundy and Sidney Hauxhurst. In 1942, the company purchased Clark & Host coffee roasting company from Charles Clark.[8]
Roundy's was a major warehouse distributor to non-company supermarkets, including IGA, but it moved out of the wholesale market to focus on retail.[9]
Roundy's was taken private in 2002 through purchase by the Chicago private-equity firm Willis Stein & Partners.[10]
Roundy's took the company public via an initial public offering (IPO) in 2012, posting an initial share price of $8.50 per share.[11]
Beginning in 2002, the CEO of the corporation was Robert "Chairman Bob" Mariano,[12] who had been the CEO of Dominick's prior to Dominick's sale to Safeway in 1998.[13]
On December 2, 2013, Roundy's and Mariano announced it would purchase 11 Dominick's stores to rebrand them as Mariano's, after Safeway finished closing the chain early in 2014.[14]
On November 11, 2015, Roundy's announced its sale to Kroger, a deal valued at $800 million including debt, which was completed on December 18, 2015.[5] Following completion of the sale, Roundy's retained its headquarters in Milwaukee.[15] It was suggested that Kroger primarily was interested in the Mariano's division, which allowed Kroger to enter the Chicago market for the first time. Underlining this, Kroger normally doesn’t acquire chains in financial difficulty; the Roundy's divisions in Wisconsin had been, and continue to be, in decline.
The sale of Roundy's to Cincinnati-based Kroger, about two years after Safeway shut down its Chicago-based Dominick's supermarket chain, selling many of the stores to other operators, was a matter discussed in the regional business press.[16]
CEO Bob Mariano retired on September 1, 2016.[17]
