(October 14, 2009, Weil Gotshal News)
Weil, Gotshal & Manges is advising private equity firm Berkshire Partners LLC on its equity investment in value grocery retailer Grocery Outlet Inc. Announced October 13, 2009, the value of the transaction is undisclosed; the deal is expected to close in early November 2009.
Established as a family owned business in 1946, Grocery Outlet Inc. is the nation’s largest “extreme value” grocery retailer. Headquartered in Berkeley, California, Grocery Outlet currently includes more than 135 independently operated stores in six Western states: California, Oregon, Idaho, Arizona, Washington and Nevada. Boston-based private equity firm Berkshire Partners has invested in mid-sized companies for more than 20 years through seven investment funds with aggregate capital commitments of approximately $6.5 billion. Over the past two decades, Berkshire has been an investor in 90 operating companies with approximately $20 billion of acquisition value and combined revenues of over $22 billion.
The Weil Gotshal team advising Berkshire Partners was led by partner James Westra, with assistance from partners Scott Sontag, Michael Kam, Kelly Dybala and Kyle Krpata; counsel Lawrence Baer, Patrick O’Toole, and John Sipple Jr.; and associates Shayla Harlev, Joseph Bernardi, Rachel Chandler, Alfred Fritzsche V, Stephen Orosz, Mark Schwed, Cynthia Marian, Benton Lewis, Gregory Burns, Phillip Repash, Kim Turner, Elizabeth Bosshard-Blackey, Jin Han, Kim Erlanson, Angela Kao, Daniel Koob, Aubree Corallo, Amy Rothstein, Kate Borun, and Vigdis Bronder; and law clerk Julian Lista. The multidisciplinary team includes private equity/M&A, tax, banking & finance, litigation/regulatory and antitrust/competition attorneys from the firm’s Boston, Dallas, New York, Silicon Valley and Washington, DC offices.