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[This article was corrected to remove references to Summer Road as a private equity company. It is a family investment fund.] A proxy battle over an Ingles Markets Inc. board seat turned nasty this week in a flurry of filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as the Black Mountain-based grocery and real estate company attempts to fight off an investment firm linked to the Sackler pharmaceutical family ahead of its April 30 annual meeting.
The investment company, Summer Road, manages the family wealth of Richard Sackler, former president of Purdue Pharma. Purdue Pharma made and marketed OxyContin, the painkiller most closely identified with the 20-year opioid crisis. It currently holds approximately 3 percent of Ingles Class A shares and, in a letter filed April 1, urged shareholders to elect a Summer Road executive, Rory A. Held, to the Ingles board of directors…