Roundy’s grocery company plans public stock offering

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Updated: January 7, 2012 8:13AM

Roundy’s Supermarkets Inc., the Milwaukee-based grocer run by a former Dominick’s CEO, said Monday it intends to become a publicly traded company and raise $230 million in its debut stock sale.

The price and number of shares to be issued have yet to be decided.

The company, run by Chicago native and former Dominick’s grocery chief executive Robert Mariano, operates four Mariano’s Fresh Market grocery stores in the Chicago area and plans to open at least eight more in the next three years.

The Mariano’s stores aim to appeal to “foodies” with organic produce, meat cutters and full-fledged delis and bakeries.

Mariano, who grew up in the Jefferson Park neighborhood and worked his way up from a part-time deli clerk to CEO of Dominick’s grocery stores — a leadership position he held from 1995 to 1998 — played a key role in taking Dominick’s public in 1996. He left Dominick’s in November 1998 after Safeway bought the chain.

Mariano is a graduate of Loyola Academy and the University of Illinois’ Circle Campus. He earned his MBA at the University of Chicago.

Roundy’s employs 17,761 and operates 158 grocery stores and 97 pharmacies under the names Pick ‘n Save, Copps, Rainbow, Metro Market and Mariano’s Fresh Market in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.

The company reported $4 billion in yearly sales and net income of $46.2 million in 2010.