After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in May and auctioning the lion’s share of its 44 stores to competitors like Kroger, Marsh Supermarkets has finally set a timeline for closing its remaining stores and liquidating the last of the company’s assets.
Court documents reported on by local ABC affiliate RTV6 noted that the company will close its remaining stores by July 20—at which time these stores, which are currently in the process of liquidating their remaining inventory and assets, will cease their liquidation sales, too.
Assets at the company’s remaining Anderson, Indiana-warehouse will continue to be sold off until July 30, with items including trailers, balers, forklifts, chicken warmers, frozen food cases, grocery carts, rotisseries, and nearly twenty other vehicles being sold.
According to local Indiana news source The Republic, Kroger subsidiary Topvalco Inc. and Fresh Encounter Inc. purchased 26 of Marsh’s stores at auction this month—11 “core” stores the former and 15 to the latter—after judges approved an expedited bankruptcy sale plan late in May.
The embattled supermarket chain filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, after attempts at a sale of all the banner’s locations were unsuccessful. The company closed more than twenty stores through the first half of 2017. And the July 20 deadline will mark, it seems, the end of a slow process of disintegration for the retailer.
While Fresh Encounter has made clear that they intend to retain Marsh store staff, noted The Republic, Kroger has held a number of job fairs this week to restaff stores purchased from Marsh.
As of Thursday, June 22, 2017, the company's website listed only 15 remaining locations in Indiana and Ohio.
Deli Market News will continue to report on important developments in retail.
