Monday, December 15th, 2008
Grocery store remains in business with new name, owners
By William Kincaid
Ole Fort IGA has been purchased by Fort Recovery couple Chad and Anne Guggenbiller, who changed the grocery's name to Wayne IGA on Friday.
Anne Guggenbiller, the new store manager, said the store was renamed to one of its earlier names, which also honors U.S. General Mad Anthony Wayne, who built the fort at Fort Recovery.
The Guggenbillers intend to make some gradual, small changes to the store but will keep all 12 of its full- and part-time workers on staff, Anne Guggenbiller said this morning.
Earlier this fall a bank reportedly foreclosed on Ole Fort IGA, formerly owned by John Sutter of Fort Recovery. A store employee told the newspaper that First Merchants Bank of Indiana changed the locks to the grocery in September.
The bank and courts, according to the store employee, were looking for a buyer and decided to keep the business open because it is the only grocery store in town.
Anne Guggenbiller said she and her husband, Chad, who also is chief financial officer at JR Manufacturing in Fort Recovery, feel the town needs a grocery store.
"We didn't want to see the community not have one," she said.
Prior to Sutter losing Ole Fort IGA, he closed Ole Fort's sister store, Logan Street IGA in Celina, on Dec. 31, 2007. At that time, he said the closure was due to economic reasons. That store remains empty today.
