Moo & Oink, the shuttered retail meat company, will live on in name only as a minority owned company acquired the former store’s brand and other intellectual property for $530,000 during a public sale of the 30-year-old company last week.

Robert Beavers, chairman and CEO of Best Chicago Meat, purchased Moo & Oink’s iconic logo, name, website, catchy commercial jingle as well as the company’s recipes for several of its meat products. Best Chicago Meat, 4649 W. Armitage Ave., makes several well-known local meat products, including Jemm burger and sausage, Red Hot hotdogs and Scala’s, Italian meat and seasoning products.

“We are extremely proud to have Moo & Oink join our stable of brands,” Beavers said. “It’s a brand that is very well-known in the African-American community. Now it will be truly a minority owned.”

Beavers and his partner, Dave Van Kampen, were the highest bidders at the public auction held at 111 S. Wacker. The auction only attracted a few bidders. The opening bid started at $100,000. There were no bids to purchase Moo & Oink’s three city stores and its south suburban Hazel Crest location.

Beavers said competition from big box retailers made it prohibitive for them to purchase all the stores. He said many of the big boxes want to come into areas that are food deserts, an area where Moo & Oink was once the only shopping option. Food desert is a term that describes an area that lacks mainstream grocery stores.

Get the full story at Chicago Journal's sister paper, Austin Weekly News.

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By melvin from austin
Posted: 12/31/2011 1:15 AM

The term 'food desert' refers to areas where the majority of residents have little or no access to healthful foods like fresh fruits or vegetables. Key words are healthful and access.