After being owned by outside interests for several years, Tops Friendly Markets is now back in the hands of local ownership.
Six years to the day after global food giant Royal Ahold sold Tops to a private equity fund, the company is once again locally owned and operated. The acquisition was finalized over the weekend by a group of the company's senior managers.
"This was very cordial. This was no surprise. It takes out any uncertainty for our associates and our stores and our communities," says Tops President and CEO Frank Curci.
The company's first store opened in Niagara Falls in 1951 and Under Curci's leadership since 2007, Tops has doubled in size to 159 full service supermarkets in New York, Vermont and Northern Pennsylvania.
The company employs 15,000 people. Curci says he and the company's five other owners plan to build on Tops' success.
"The supermarket business is really one where to be successful you have to really know your customers and your stores and this gives the ability to really run it from right here in Western New York, to have it run by people who really understand their stores and customers," Curci told WBFO News.
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.