James Kowalski, who built the Twin Cities chain of nine supermarkets bearing his name, died Thursday in an accident while on a fishing trip in Canada.
The accident occurred in a float plane on an Ontario lake but did not involve a crash, said Deb Kowalski, a family member and a Kowalski's employee, declining to give further details. The other occupant of the plane, an old friend, was not hurt.
A report late Thursday night from Ontario Provincial Police indicated Kowalski was outside the Cessna float plane as it was taxiing to shore on an isolated lake, about 20 miles south of the town of Red Lake and nearly 300 miles northwest of Thunder Bay. The investigation is ongoing and the cause of death hasn't been determined, Ontario Provincial Constable David Lamme said.
He said Ontario police in Red Lake were called to the remote lake at 10:30 a.m. on a report that a man had been injured. By the time police arrived, Kowalski had been flown to the Red Lake airport, where paramedics were waiting. But Lemme said Kowalski was dead when he arrived.
Kowalski, 67, created Kowalski's Markets, a small upscale chain that has thrived even as the grocery business has become increasingly competitive and dominated by giant national players. The Woodbury-based company tripled in size between the late 1980s and late 2000s.
It began in 1983 with a single store, a former Red Owl, on Grand Avenue in St. Paul.
"Jim Kowalski started his grocery life working for Red Owl," said John Dean, a Twin Cities supermarket consultant. "He did an excellent job for them and ended up buying a store from the Red Owl group as it disbanded. Jim said it was a store nobody else wanted."
He and his wife, Mary Anne, made it work and opened a second supermarket in White Bear Lake. Today, there also are Kowalski's outlets in Eagan, Eden Prairie, Woodbury and Oak Park Heights, along with two stores in south Minneapolis and one in the city's Uptown area. The company particularly expanded in the 2000s.
