Market Basket sells majority stake to Arthur T. Demoulas

The Market Basket supermarket chain has agreed to sell to a majority stake to former boss Arthur T. Demoulas, ending a months-long dispute.

In announcing his purchase, Arthur T. Demoulas told workers, who had gone on strike in July to protest against his firing: “You are simply the best.”

The 70-plus stores belonging to the chain are mostly located in the northeastern US.

It was estimated the company was losing $70 million a day during the strike.

On August 27, Arthur T. Demoulas announced that he had reached an agreement to purchase the 50.5% of the company he did not control from a rival faction controlled by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, for $1.5 billion.

“Words cannot express how much I appreciate each and every one of you,” Arthur T. Demoulas said while addressing workers outside the company’s Massachusetts headquarters on August 28.

The company employs roughly 25,000 people in the area.

The saga began in June, when Arthur T. Demoulas was ousted as CEO of the company by a rival faction of his family, which controlled 50.5% of the firm.

The dispute was said to have been over a series of investments Arthur T. Demoulas had authorized, which led to large losses and smaller payouts for Market Basket’s shareholders.

However, the dispute simmered for a month until the new management fired eight workers who had protested againstArthur T. Demoulas’s demise in July.

That is when a campaign led by Market Basket workers and customers to “Save Market Basket” began to gather steam.

Workers went on strike, truck drivers refused to deliver fresh produce and meat, and shoppers boycotted stores, leading to empty shelves and the near-collapse of the firm.

Efforts on social media also paid off, with an anonymously-run Facebook page to save the Market Basket gathering over 90,000 likes and the hashtag, #MarketBasket, trending often on Twitter.

This brought national and international attention to the plight of the workers, stunning many in the industry both because the workers were not unionized and because they were campaigning for an almost-unheard of thing: the reinstatement of their boss.

Although negotiations between Arthur T. Demoulas and his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, continued through July, tensions were further agitated when Market Basket’s new co-chief executives announced a job fair in early August to hire replacement workers.

Now, those workers are breathing a sigh of relief.

Many tweeted pictures of newly-stocked shelves at several stores where meat counters and fresh produce areas had been empty for the past few weeks.

The question now is whether the chain, which has been essentially not in operation for two months, can recover from the essential collapse of its operations.

Boycotting customers said they would return to shop at the store immediately, as Market Basket is known for its lower-than-average prices.