“In 2022, Shawn and Sharon retired and sold the business to Teamshares,” Old Town Market President Lucinda Ochwat said. “[Teamshares] market[s] to retiring business owners who don’t have a succession plan.”
Ochwat added that Teamshares is a company that buys businesses and sells it back to the employees. At Old Town Market, Teamshares is selling the company back to the employees. The end goal is to have employees own 80% with the rest owned by Teamshares.
“It was a big part of the transition for [Shawn and Sharon] that there was nobody better to sell the business to than the employees,” Ochwat said.
Travis Halcovich is the general manager and lead butcher of Old Town Market. He has been a butcher for 22 years and with Old Town Market for two years.
“You can get from wagyu filet to ground chuck and everything in between [here],” Halcovich said.
Examples of “everything in between” include chicken, pork, venison, elk, fish, frog, quail, lamb, turkey, duck and boar.
“The customers range from somebody doing a recipe that needs duck liver to those coming here every week who want chicken breasts and chuck roasts,” Ochwat said.
Some of their recipes have a 45-year-old history, such as most of the sausage recipes, their barbecue sauce, the house rub and more.
“I love that we still have customers who have been shopping here for 45 years. That’s not an exaggeration,” Ochwat said.
It is important to the new business owners to keep the old-timey feel of the business.
“This is a meat market like I grew up going to,” Halcovich said. “If I can make that feeling for a Vietnam vet, and he says, ‘I know a place like this,’ that’s perfect.”
Old Town Market
123 Chinn Chapel Road, Double Oak
972-436-6742
www.oldtownmeatmarket.com
