INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Hoosier farmers and agribusinesses have lost a partner in marketing their products locally, as Marsh Supermarkets LLC announced its Chapter 11 bankruptcy last week.

 

If a buyer is not found in two months, the 44 remaining stores will be closed. Nineteen stores have already closed this year.

Headquartered in Indianapolis, Marsh is the only large supermarket chain to be centered in Indiana, which made it an ideal partner in marketing Hoosier products, said Ted McKinney, director of the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (ISDA).

“This was our regional supermarket located here and headquartered here. They bought Indiana pork burger patties, Red Gold tomatoes and truckloads of local produce, especially Indiana sweet corn,” he said.

“It was easy to work with Marsh because of local control. To put those Hoosier products into Kroger, Meijer and Walmart, we will have multiple layers of corporate (authority) to climb.”

However, McKinney is not resigned to altogether losing Marsh statewide, some of which are the only grocery store in their towns.

“Right now, we are very hopeful that a buyer or a remedy can be found. If all stores close, it will be bad for a lot of people, including Indiana agriculture ... I’m not a doomsday-er. A lot of people – the mayor and civic leaders – are working to try and find a solution,” he said.

Red Gold, based in Elwood, is a close business partner, too. “Marsh was a big customer of ours. We’ve been doing business with them since before I can remember,” said Colt Reichart, a fourth-generation family member-owner of Red Gold.

“It’s a shame to see our partners fall to their competition. They carried more Red Gold products than anyone else.”

Reichart said Marsh is also the only store to carry all the varieties of Red Gold’s products, including its chili and seafood sauces and Tuttorosso, an Italian marinara sauce. However, Red Gold is not overly worried, he said.

“We will have to work with Kroger, Meijer and Walmart to make sure all the varieties are available. I recently went to a local Walmart, and all of their Red Gold varieties were sold out. In terms of consumption, hopefully the volume will get picked up by others,” he said. “Red Gold is the No. 1 brand in the state. They will be interested.”

All the same, the chain will not be easy to replace. “Marsh business leaders were excellent. We love Marsh,” Reichart added. According to Marsh’s press release, the 44 remaining locations will continue business as normal throughout the bankruptcy process.

“While today’s decision was extremely difficult, we believe this action is necessary to preserve the value of the business as we seek a sale,” said CEO Tom O’Boyle last week. 

“After reviewing every alternative, we concluded that Chapter 11 clearly provides the most effective and efficient means to ensure the best recovery for the company’s stakeholders.”

If all stores close, 2,788 part- and fulltime employees will be laid off, a Marsh spokesperson said. Sixteen Marsh locations have 50 or more employees Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett said the  city is working to find an alternative to closing two more Indianapolis locations, having lost four already.

“Closing all of these stores at once would leave swaths of our city without a dependable source for high-quality food, and could affect hundreds of hardworking residents,” he said.

Other cities with a Marsh supermarket include Carmel, Bloomington, Kokomo, Marion, Muncie and Zionsville. In towns like Pendleton, Elwood and Tipton, Marsh is the only large grocery.

Marsh officials blame the supermarket chain’s troubles on “unexpected difficulties and increased competition” from stores like Meijer and Walmart. The first Marsh grocery was opened in Muncie in 1931 and at its height the company expanded to up to 100 stores in central Indiana and western Ohio.