Plan would buy area Marsh stores from bankruptcy

Marsh Supermarkets in Columbus and Greensburg have found a buyer.

Bankruptcy court documents released yesterday indicate that those stores will be part of a $8 million dollar deal to purchase 15 stores in Ohio and Indiana. Those would be acquired by Findlay, Ohio- based Generative Growth II.

Generative Grow II is the parent company of is the parent company of Fresh Encounters, Great Scot, Community Markets, and Sack n’ Save grocery stores.

Kroger subsidiary Topvalco, Inc. will buy 11 stores, including two stores each in Indy and Zionsville. That would be a $16 million dollar purchase.

Marsh still needs to find owners for 18 stores.

However, our news-gathering partners at Network Indiana are reporting this morning that CVS Pharmacies filed an objection Tuesday to the purchase plans. When Marsh grocery stores made a deal for CVS to buy all of their pharmacies in April, the two companies agreed that if Marsh had a buyer, the new owner could not operate pharmacies in the stores for five years.

CVS wants to stop the sale for three weeks so that lawyers can look the deal over for any possible solutions. If pharmacies were allowed to open in the stores, it would mean competition for the CVS locations that have already begun to take over the business from the closed pharmacies.