Arthur T. Demoulas Reiterates Commitment to Market Basket Prices, Worker Pay
In his first one-on-one interview since this summer’s supermarket saga began, Arthur T. Demoulas tells The Boston Globe that Market Basket’s business operations are on stable footing, with sales back to 100 percent of where they were a year ago.
That’s in stark contrast, of course, with the near-complete shutdown of business for six weeks in July and August, after Demoulas’s June firing as CEO saw workers and customers protest for his reinstatement. Demoulas, who was still a major shareholder, ultimately reached a deal to buy out the chain on August 27.
Demoulas said in a Labor Day press conference that he is committed to keeping Market Basket’s compensation and prices—key reasons employees and customers respectively fought for his return—in place. He reiterates those commitments in the Globe interview.
The deal to buy Market Basket is being financed by more than $1 billion in debt. It’s been reported that more than $500 million is coming in the form of private equity financing. Fortune Magazine identified the private equity firm in late August as the Blackstone Group.
The debt will likely have some effect on Market Basket, as Demoulas has previously said—and repeats to the Globe—that it could lead the company to slow expansion plans after opening pending new stores.
Some have wondered how debt to or even partial ownership by a private equity firm would ultimately impact Market Basket’s business model. Blackstone is not taking on an ownership stake, the Globe reports. And even if it had…well, it’s not like the company’s ownership situation could be less harmonious than it had been for the last quarter century.
Read the Globe’s full interview with Arthur T. Demoulas here.
Read our full coverage of the Market Basket saga.
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