How Sobeys' parent company crafted $357M deal for popular Toronto grocer Longo's
Empire and its flagship Sobeys brand have historically struggled to strengthen their foothold in Ontario, and CEO Michael Medline has heavily invested to change that
Michael Medline, who runs one of the biggest grocery chains in Canada, was looking for a place last summer to meet with the head of a rival chain. It was a sensitive meeting about a potential acquisition, so it had to happen someplace where they wouldn’t know anyone.
“We couldn’t, obviously, go to each other’s offices,” said Medline, chief executive of Sobeys’ parent company Empire Co. Ltd., partly because of the pandemic, but mostly because he worried his staff would recognize Anthony Longo, chief executive of the popular southern Ontario chain Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc.
“There was nowhere to hide,” Medline said. “So I suggested something to Anthony that, in normal times, would be literally insane because we didn’t want to be seen together.”
They ended up meeting on Bay Street in downtown Toronto, generally the teeming centre of Canadian commerce on weekdays, but mostly — and eerily — empty during the pandemic.
“I knew we’d never run into any one there, and no one would recognize us,” he said.
The two sat on a bench in a little park, alone at the base of the humongous Bay Adelaide Centre, and discussed what would become a $357-million deal for Empire to acquire 51 per cent of Longo’s, details of which were announced on Tuesday morning.
