Ingles Urges Shareholders To Reject Rory Held, Back Its Board Picks
Ingles Markets, Incorporated (NASDAQ:IMKTA) today issued the following open letter to shareholders:
Dear Ingles Shareholders,
If you have been following the events of the last few weeks, you know that we at Ingles Markets have been working hard to elect our two qualified director nominees – Rebekah Lowe and Dwight Jacobs – and to assure that the Sacklers' nominee Rory Held does not have the opportunity to damage our company.
Over the past two weeks, we have received heartwarming communications from several of long-term Ingles' shareholders who recognize and appreciate the honorable way in which we have managed our business as well as the tremendous value we have created for all of our stakeholders. These supportive shareholders have also told us that they oppose Rory Held's risky "financial engineering" agenda and fear the long-term damage it will likely cause.
Along the way, however, a few of our shareholders have asked us: "So, what is the harm in having a shareholder like Rory Held serve on our board?"
We think you deserve our answers to that question, and they are very simple:
- Rory Held is not who Summer Road wants you to think he is, and they are hiding material information from shareholders about his role in the Sackler family.
- His ideas regarding the management of Ingles' real estate are dangerous, and it is clear that neither Summer Road nor Rory Held understand the grocery industry or Ingles' business.
So, Who is Rory Held?
In their communications with our shareholders, Summer Road has made the following statements about Mr. Held:
"Our independent director candidate, Rory A. Held, is not a member of the Sackler family and has never worked with Purdue Pharma."1
"Shareholders are voting to elect Mr. Held, an investment professional who has never worked for Purdue Pharma and who brings the perspective of an Ingles Class A owner to the Board."2
These statements are consistent with others made by Summer Road throughout this process in which Mr. Held is characterized as just another ordinary investment professional trying to do his job. Summer Road has worked very hard to distance Mr. Held from the devastating conduct of the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma in causing the OxyContin opioid crisis. Indeed, until Ingles pointed it out, Summer Road never even mentioned Summer Road's ties to the Sackler family or the fact that it is 100% owned by a former Co-Chairman of the Purdue Pharma Board of Directors.
But, in a time when public records are available to anyone, Summer Road and Rory Held can run, but they cannot hide – although they have tried. Summer Road has accused Ingles of not understanding public company governance. However, Ingles understands public company governance just fine; and we also understand the dangers of divided loyalties in a public company boardroom.
Rory Held's Loyalties Are Owed to the Sacklers, Including the Former Co-Chairman of the Purdue Pharma Board of Directors.
Rory Held is Deeply Intertwined with the Sackler Family Trusts Used to Hold Funds Salvaged from the Purdue Pharma Bankruptcy.
As a Trustee for Several Sackler Family Trusts, Rory Held Has Legal Duties of Loyalty to the Sackler Family – These Duties Don't Disappear Even if He Serves on the Ingles Board.
Summer Road Has Hidden Rory Held's Years of Service and Loyalty to the Sacklers from Ingles and Ingles Shareholders.
As you will see, the story is a somewhat complicated one, buried in piles of legal documents, but the ending is clear. Rory Held is totally beholden to the Sackler family.
In April 2013, Rory Held joined Summer Road, which is the Florida family office of Richard Stephen Sackler, according to Held's LinkedIn profile, as well as records filed with the SEC.3 Richard Sackler is the son of Raymond Sackler – one of three brothers who acquired Purdue Pharma in 1952 and served as co-chairman of the Company's Board of Directors.4
Summer Road is the family office of Richard Sackler. Summer Road was registered to conduct business in New York in January 2014 and in Florida in July 2019.5 In November 2019, an attorney for Richard Sackler's son, David Sackler, filed a presentation6 that was addressed to Rep. Carolyn B Maloney, Chair of the Committee on Reform and Oversight of the U.S. House of Representatives. This presentation states that Richard Sackler, and the Estates of Beverly Sackler and Jonathan Sackler hold a 100% interest in Summer Road.
Summer Road is led by David Sackler, the son of Richard Sackler who was the Co-Chairman of Purdue Pharma during the years that led to the OxyContin scandal.7
In April 2013, Rory Held joined Summer Road as a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager.8,9 He has held the title Executive Vice President since at least July 2019, and in December 2023, he gained the additional title of Chief Investment Officer.
Rory Held is named as an Authorized Person and Executive Vice President of Summer Road in corporate records filed with the Florida Division of Corporations dating from 2019 through October 2025.
Summer Road is just one small part of the patchwork of trusts and entities formed by the Sacklers to shield their assets. But, the story gets more interesting, and you will see that Rory Held emerges as a central character.
Summer Road provides investment management services to Cap 1 LLC, which is wholly owned by Crystal Fiduciary Company LLC, as Trustees of the 1974 Irrevocable Trust A FBO BS and RSS, a Sackler family-controlled trust.10
Rory Held is identified in Purdue Pharma Chapter 11 Bankruptcy court filings as a director, manager or officer of several major Raymond Sackler family entities:11
- RRS I: Rory Held was identified as a current and/or former director, manager and/or officer of the "RRS I-way entity in Purdue Pharma L.P. chain of ownership."12 RRS I-way entities are entities directly or indirectly owned by persons or trusts associated with the Raymond Sackler family ("RRS"), as distinguished from those directly or indirectly owned by persons or trusts associated with the Mortimer Sackler family ("MDS").13 RRS Family I-way entities are identified in the Purdue Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.14
- RRS Family I: Rory Held is identified as a current and/or former director, manager and/or officer of the "RRS I-way entity in Purdue Pharma L.P. chain of ownership."15 RRS Family I-way entities are identified in the Purdue Chapter 11 bankruptcy.16
- Crystal Trust: Rory Held is identified as a successor co-trustee of Crystal Trust in Notice of Appearance of Counsel filed on November 5, 2025, for the Purdue Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.The Crystal Trust was formed on September 25, 2017 in Wyoming. The trust's beneficiaries include Richard Sackler and his heirs.17
Crystal Trust's assets were described in a 412-page exhibit titled Raymond-side International Presentation dated November 22, 2019 attached to a 2021 letter from Robert Finzi, an attorney with Paul, Weiss, Rifkin, Wharton & Garrison LLP working for the Raymond Sackler side of the Sackler family to Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform for the US House of Representatives.18 The company's assets were identified as a 100% interest in Crystal Fiduciary Company LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company.19 - Data Trust: Rory Held is identified as a successor co-trustee of Data Trust in Notice of Appearance of Counsel filed on November 5, 2025, for the Purdue Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Data Trust was formed on November 20, 2018, in Wyoming. The trust's beneficiaries include Richard Sackler and his heirs.20 The company's assets were identified in the above-noted Finzi letter to Representative Maloney as a 100% interest in Data LLC, a Wyoming limited liability company.21 The special purpose trust was reportedly created to be their "own private trust company and to allow for the passing of ownership on the company to succeeding generations."22 The Data Trust was also identified as a RRS Family Trust in records filed in the above-cited Purdue Bankruptcy.23
Summer Road disclosed its relationship with Data LLC in a Form 13F Institutional Investment Management Holdings Report filed with the SEC in February 2026.24 Data LLC is described as a manager reporting for Summer Road.25
So, What Are These Sackler Trusts and Entities, and Why Were They Formed?
Credible Reporting Establishes that the Sacklers Moved Substantial Portions of Their Salvaged Purdue Pharma Funds into At Least One of the Trusts Where Rory Held Serves as Trustee.
In August 2020, Bloomberg Businessweek published the article, "How the Sacklers Shifted $10.8 Billion of Their Opioid Fortune."26 The article said that its authors had "spent months" analyzing a trove of documents that helped explain how Purdue – the company at the center of the opioid epidemic – moved money between entities in Luxembourg, the British Virgin Islands, and Delaware between 2008 – after Purdue Pharma pled guilty to misleading the public about the addictive potential of its flagship painkiller, OxyContin, through 2017, before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.27
Bloomberg wrote that after tax bills were settled, the bulk of the cash landed in two Delaware companies, Rosebay Medical Co. and Beacon Co. The money from these companies was then moved through trusts to two sides of the Sackler family: The Estate of Richard Sackler and Jonathan Sackler benefited from Rosebay and the Estate of Mortimer D.A. Sackler and his family benefitted from Beacon.
The article reported that the Office of New York State Attorney argued that the Sackler family had moved billions of dollars into trusts to shelter them. Furthermore, in August 2019, the Attorney General subpoenaed at least ten financial institutions "in an effort to establish the Sacklers' fraud."28
Bloomberg reported that the subpoenas alleged that a portion of the $4.4 billion shifted by the Sacklers was used for multi-million-dollar real estate transactions, noting that Summer Road – Richard Sackler's family office and Rory Held's employer – was calculated to have made $60 million from the sale of Cap 1 LLC's stake in Peak Resorts in 2019, where Rory Held served on the Board as a Sackler designee.
Wealth Advisor published a similar article in September 2020 titled, "How The Billionaire Sackler Family Allegedly Moved Their Opioid Money Around To Preserve Fortune In Midst Of Lawsuits."29 In addition to what was reported by Bloomberg, Wealth Advisor reported that certain companies were paid a few million each from Purdue in 2012, including Data LLC.
As noted above, Rory Held is a successor co-trustee of Data Trust, which held a 100% interest in Data LLC, as noted in the 2025 Purdue Chapter 11 bankruptcy records.
What All This Means — Rory Held is Not Just the "Investment Professional" Who Summer Road Says He is.
As a Trustee for the Sackler Family Trusts, it is Clear to Us that Rory Held's Loyalties Belong to the Sacklers, NOT to Ingles Shareholders.
We believe that Summer Road has materially misrepresented Rory Held's role in the Sackler family web of trusts and other entities, including trusts formed to shield assets derived from the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy.
Summer Road's assertion that Rory Held "never worked for Purdue Pharma" is misleading because it fails to mention the significant role that he has played in securing and managing the arguably ill-gotten wealth of the Sackler family, derived primarily from Purdue Pharma.
Moreover, not only is Rory Held playing a substantial role managing the assets of the Sackler family, his multiple trustee roles mean that he has a duty of loyalty to the Sackler family.
As lawyers would explain it, if Rory Held were to be elected to the Ingles Board, he would have potentially conflicting fiduciary duties of loyalty to the Sacklers and to Ingles, calling his independence into question. For Summer Road and Rory Held to deny that shows that they are the ones who do not understand public company governance.
So, ask yourself: "Why take the risk of electing a director who is obligated to serve the notorious Sackler family?"
We Believe Rory Held's Ideas for How Ingles Should Manage its Real Estate Would Be Dangerous to the Value of Your Investment.
Rory Held has claimed that Ingles owns over 1,800 undeveloped acres of real estate. The reality is that Ingles' 29 undeveloped holdings amount to only about one-third of the acreage that Rory Held claims we own. Some are designated for Ingles' potential future development; others are smaller parcels designated for sale, ground lease or build-to-suit development. For many grocers, including Ingles, owned real estate provides multiple strategic advantages, including operational control and flexibility, a stronger balance sheet, and the ability to generate significant rental income, which has grown to over $30 million in the past decade.
Summer Road is a "financial engineer." Its recommendations make clear to us – Summer Road and Rory Held are looking for a quick hit gain at the expense of long-term value creation.
As we have discussed in some of our other communications with you, it is Summer Road's kind of narrow financial playbook that is responsible for other previously successful grocery store chains going out of business, like A&P and Winn Dixie, due to the prioritization of capital returns over long-term investment.
Don't let this happen to Ingles Markets.
Rory Held is not who Summer Road says he is.
We believe his financial engineering ideas would be destructive to Ingles and the value of your shares.
We urge you – protect your investment by voting "FOR" only Rebekah Lowe and Dwight Jacobs on the WHITE proxy card today. Rebekah and Dwight are respected, highly qualified, and independent. They have the credibility and commitment to serve the best interests of all Ingles shareholders.
Sincerely,
The Ingles Board of Directors