Gordy's finalizes deal with Ron's Castle Foods

The Gordy Schafer family, which owns and operates two Gordy's County Markets in both Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire, as well as grocery stores in Augusta, Cornell and Ladysmith, recently completed the purchase of Ron's Castle Foods, 1031 W. Clairemont Ave., Eau Claire, from Ron Kielpinski.

"We have been locally-owned and independently operated for 30 years and we are pleased to turn over the reins of this operation to the Schafer family," said Kielpinski, who has more than 46 years of grocery store experience and will remain on the Gordy's staff at the East Hamilton Avenue store.

According to Gordy's County Market President Jeff Schafer, the transition from Ron's to Gordy's is expected to be completed by mid-April.

"We heard through our wholesaler than Ron was looking to sell. This gives us a presence on the southwest side of Eau Claire, which we believe has a lot of potential with our other operations in Eau Claire," said Schafer, who added that the Schafer family has established its own trucking firm.

"We had SuperValu, our wholesaler, doing our trucking, but we switched to a third-party contractor a few years ago. We found that it was a good financial move for us to do our own trucking and we've hired seven drivers...some of which were with our third party contractor," he said.

Gordy's County Market, which will retain the current Ron's employees, now has more than 800 workers. TBL