Founding Families Buy Back Strack & Van Til

In a stunning turn of events that apparently will keep Northwest Indiana’s hometown grocery chain in local hands, members of its founding families successfully bid on 20 Strack & Van Til supermarkets in a bankruptcy auction.

Strack & Van Til President and CEO Jeff Strack, the Strack family, the Van Til family and others joined forces to buy the stores, owned by the bankrupt grocery cooperative Central Grocers, reported The Northwest Indiana Times, which broke the story late Tuesday. A bankruptcy court judge will have to approve the sale at a hearing next Tuesday.

Strack did not disclose the amount of the bid, the Times reported. Chicago-area retailer Jewel-Osco, owned by Albertsons Cos., had entered a $100 million stalking horse bid for 19 stores.

The deal encompasses 17 Strack & Van Til stores in Northwest Indiana, including the Schererville store featured in PG’s January 2016 issue as Store of the Month; two Town & Country Markets; an Ultra Foods store; a central bakery in Valparaiso; and the corporate headquarters in Highland, Ind.

Click here for a video tour of Strack & Van Til’s Schererville store

The supermarket chain’s new ownership group is called the Indiana Grocery Group, which includes the families that previously owned Strack & Van Til before it was sold to Joliet, Ill.-based Central Grocers in 1997, the Times reported. Strack already owns 10 percent of the chain.

Debt-laden Central Grocers, which served 400 independent grocers throughout the Chicago area, filed for bankruptcy in May after an unsuccessful search for a buyer.

Strack & Van Til was founded in 1960 when grocers Ernie Strack and Nick Van Til partnered to open their first supermarket in Highland. The chain once had 38 locations.

"The Strack and The Van Til families are excited for the opportunity to continue to serve the communities of Northwest Indiana," Jeff Strack told the Times.