Ingles Investor Seeks to Add Members to Grocer's Board

Investment firm GAMCO Asset Management, an investor of several years’ standing in Asheville, N.C.-based Ingles Markets, has revealed in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission its plans to nominate Justyn R. Putnam, the managing member of Charlotte, N.C.-based Talanta Investment Group LLC, and John “Jack” R. Lowden, president and CIO of Greenwich, Conn.-based NewCastle Partners LLC, for election to the grocer’s board at its 2018 annual meeting, in a bid to gain more control over decisions made concerning the business.

Founded and headed by billionaire investor Mario Gabelli, New York-based GAMCO further noted in the Nov. 14 Schedule 13D filing that it’s now a “beneficial owner” of 8.98 percent of the available Class A stock in Ingles, with 6.64 percent held by Gabelli Funds and 1.26 percent by Teton Advisors, both GAMCO-related entities.

The grocer’s eight-member board currently features two Ingle family members: CEO Robert P. Ingle II and Laura Ingle Sharp, daughter of the supermarket chain’s founder.