Morgan Stanley Buys Tops Markets for $310M

BUFFALO, NY-Morgan Stanley Private Equity has purchased 71 grocery stores from Netherlands-based Ahold for $310 million. The bulk of the stores represent the remaining Tops Markets chain, while the purchase also includes four Martins Super Food Stores, with all the properties located in New York and northwestern Pennsylvania.

The Tops company was founded as a neighborhood grocery chain in the early 1960s in Buffalo, NY. Ahold purchased the company in 1991, but sold off its northeast Ohio stores last year, and had divested subsidiaries Wilson Farms and Sugarcreek in 2005. One Tops Market store at 1854 Empire Blvd. in Webster, NY was the only store that was not part of the sales agreement due to the termination of its lease.