New York Investment Firm To Acquire Mills Fleet Farm

BRAINERD (AP) - Family-owned Mills Fleet Farm has agreed to sell to one on the country's largest investment firms based in New York.

KKR has holdings in various industries totaling about $100 billion. KKR retail executive Nate Taylor says while his company will acquire majority control of the stock, the Mills family will keep a small ownership stake in the 61-year-old Midwestern company. Taylor says the company will be operated independently of KKR's other retailers, which include US Foods.

Terms of the purchase agreement were not disclosed Tuesday.

Mills Fleet Farm operates 35 stores located in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota. Its corporate office is in Brainerd.

The company was founded in 1955 by Stewart Mills Sr. along with his sons Henry Mills II and Stewart Mills Jr.