Skogen family now owns 36 supermarkets in Wisconsin

Skogen’s Festival Foods announced Monday, Sept. 13, that it plans to purchase the Festival Foods in New London.

The New London store is the last remaining Festival Foods in Wisconsin that the Skogen family does not own.

It will be Skogen’s Festival Foods’ 36th full-service supermarket in Wisconsin.

The acquisition is set to close on Oct. 15.

Brothers Mike and Ted Coppersmith, along with Ted’s wife, Beth, have been operating the store as a Festival Foods since 1999.

Mike and Ted began their grocery careers at age 14 working for their parents in the early 1970s. Their first job was cleaning the meat department.

Lloyd and Dianne Coppersmith and their business partner Ron Braush operated Ron and Lloyd’s Red Owl Foods until the brother purchased the business in 1979.

In 1999, they began operating the store as Festival Foods and moved the business to its present location in the Wolf River Plaza.

On Dec. 30, 2020, Ted and Beth Coppersmith retired and sold their interest in the store to Mike.

“My family and I want to thank everyone who has supported our family and our business for so many years and we are pleased to transition the store to another family who puts customers and communities first,” Mike Coppersmith said in the press release.

“The Coppersmith family has delivered excellence to the New London community for generations,” Festival Foods president and CEO Mark Skogen said. “We are honored to have this opportunity to continue the tradition they began.”

According to the Festival Foods website, the Paul Skogen family began to acquire a number of small stores from 1946 to 1979. After Paul passed away in 1976, his son, Dave, along with his wife, Barb, and brothers, Gary and Tom, oversaw company operations.

In 1990, they opened the first Festival Foods store in Onalaska.

In 1992, Dave’s son, Mark, joined the company full-time after graduation from college. Together, Dave and Mark led Festival Foods to growth across the state by opening additional stores in Marshfield, Green Bay, Oshkosh, Eau Claire and Holmen.

Mark Skogen became CEO and president in 2006.