Terre Logsdon – Record-Bee staff
LAKEPORT ? Touted as the largest locally-owned supermarket in Lake County, Bruno”s Foods has been sold to Oregon-based C & K Market Inc., who operates Ray”s Food Place and Shop Smart Food Warehouse.
“It was time,” said Bruno”s founder and owner, Bill Brunetti.
Brunetti opened Bruno”s Foods in 1983 with 15 employees in what is now the Grocery Outlet on the corner of S. Main Street and Lakeport Boulevard.
Ten years later, Brunetti moved to the store”s current location a block away. Over the years he said he has employed more than 4,000 people.
“I”ve been in this business since I was 15,” Brunetti said Friday, “and I”m looking forward to retirement.”
Brunetti put the store up for sale about six months ago, he said, and was happy to find a company “that was a great fit for the community.”
“We”ve lost talented people in the past to our suppliers because they couldn”t move up here,” Brunetti said.
After purchasing Bruno”s, C & K Market Inc. now owns and operates 58 stores in Northern California and Southern Oregon.
Additionally, Brunetti reported that all employees will retain their jobs and hopes the transition to “Bruno”s Shop Smart” will be seamless.
“We are thrilled and honored to be in Lakeport,” said Doug Nidiffer, president and CEO of C & K Market Inc.
Nidiffer said the company would keep everything the same at Bruno”s ? sponsoring local schools and athletic teams, for instance. Any changes, he said, would come in the forms of improvement.
Brunetti will stay on as manager for at least six months, he said.
And then?
“I”ll retire for a while after that,” he said.
Brunetti said he hopes to have more time in the future for his political activities.
Bruno”s Shop Smart will officially begin operating on June 28.
Contact Terre Logsdon at tlogsdon@record-bee.com.
