Long Island’s King Kullen to be acquired by Giunta’s Meat Farms; Wading River store included

Giunta’s Meat Farms has agreed to acquire King Kullen Grocery Co., a deal that includes the King Kullen supermarket in Wading River and four Wild by Nature natural foods markets, the two Long Island-based companies announced Thursday in a joint statement.

The acquisition encompasses all 24 King Kullen supermarkets and the four Wild by Nature stores owned by the company. It is expected to close in September. Financial terms were not disclosed.

King Kullen’s current locations include a supermarket in the Wading River Commons shopping center on Route 25A, the company’s only store in Riverhead Town. The King Kullen supermarket on Route 58 closed down in November 2015, after more than four decades in business.

The acquisition also includes Wild by Nature stores in Hampton Bays, East Setauket, Huntington and Oceanside. The Hampton Bays store is the natural-foods chain’s only location on the South Fork. There is no Wild by Nature store in Westhampton.

The companies said they will continue operating independently until the transaction closes and that all King Kullen and Wild by Nature employees are expected to be retained afterward.

The announcement did not say whether the acquired supermarkets will continue operating under the King Kullen and Wild by Nature names or whether any will eventually be converted to the Meat Farms brand.

Joseph Giunta, co-owner of Giunta’s Meat Farms, called King Kullen “a significant part of Long Island’s history” and said his company was honored to carry its legacy forward.

King Kullen President and Chief Operating Officer Tracey Cullen said the company wanted to find a local buyer that understood King Kullen’s history, employees and place in the communities it serves.

She said the Cullen family believes Giunta’s Meat Farms is the right steward for the company’s legacy and will work with the buyer during the transition.

Stop & Shop announced in January 2019 that it would acquire King Kullen’s supermarkets, then numbering 32, its Wild by Nature stores and its corporate offices in Bethpage. The agreement, signed in December 2018, remained pending for more than a year and was at one point scheduled to close in April 2020.

Stop & Shop and King Kullen terminated the agreement in June 2020, saying they had jointly decided not to proceed because of significant and unforeseen changes in the grocery marketplace, largely driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. King Kullen remained independently owned and operated by the Cullen family.

King Kullen Chairman James A. Cullen said the company’s customers and employees have made the supermarket chain part of the fabric of Long Island for nearly a century. He said Giunta’s is guided by principles similar to those that have defined King Kullen since it was founded by his grandfather, Michael Cullen, in 1930.

King Kullen, headquartered in Hauppauge, describes itself as America’s first supermarket. The company operates stores across Nassau and Suffolk counties, including locations in Wading River, Cutchogue, Eastport, Manorville, Center Moriches, Hampton Bays and Bridgehampton.

Giunta’s Meat Farms is an Oakdale-based, family-owned supermarket company with 10 stores in Suffolk County. The acquisition would bring its total holdings to 38 supermarkets and natural-foods markets, making it one of Long Island’s largest locally owned grocery operators.

The two companies already have a connection involving a former King Kullen location. Giunta’s opened its 10th Meat Farms supermarket in Middle Island in November in a building previously occupied by King Kullen. King Kullen had closed that store after deciding not to renew its lease.

That conversion, however, took place before the acquisition agreement and involved a former King Kullen property rather than the purchase of the King Kullen company and its brands.

The announcement did not provide a timetable for decisions about store names, customer rewards programs, gift cards or possible renovations. It also did not indicate whether management or operations at individual stores, including the Wading River supermarket, will change after the transaction closes.