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Formerly |
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Founded | 1915Topeka, Kansas | in
Founders |
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Defunct | August 20, 2004 |
Successor | Core-Mark |
Fleming Companies was founded as Lux Mercantile in Topeka, Kansas, in 1915 by O. A. Fleming, Gene Wilson and Samuel Lux. [1] In 1921 the company's name was changed to Fleming-Wilson, and in 1941, the company name was changed to The Fleming Company, and Ned Fleming, son of O.A., was named president, chairman, and CEO. [2] The company's IPO occurred in 1959, when 100,000 shares were offered. In 1981, R.D. Harrsion was elected Chairman and CEO of the company, with Dean Werries serving as President and COO. Starting in the 1960s, Fleming Companies began acquiring numerous grocery wholesalers and retailers, and it grew to become the nation's largest supplier of consumer packaged goods to U.S. retailers, serving approximately 50,000 retail locations. These locations included supermarkets such as IGA, convenience stores, supercenters, discount stores, concessions, limited assortment, drug, specialty, casinos, gift shops, military commissaries and exchanges and others. In the early 1990s, Fleming was the largest food wholesaler in the United States. [3] The company served more than 3,500 supermarkets and other retail food stores in 42 states and the District of Columbia.
Fleming became the nation's largest grocery wholesaler in 1991 with its purchase of Furr's Supermarkets; it lost that title in 1992 to SuperValu, but regained it in 1994 after its purchase of fellow Oklahoma City firm Scrivner Inc., the third-largest wholesaler. [2]
In 1994, Fleming formed Fleming Supermarkets of Florida, Inc. whereby it inherited a chain of supermarkets in Florida (operating as Hyde Park Markets and Wooley's Fine Foods) and launched them as a Healthy Gourmet upscale Market where diet, nutrition and recipe programs were incorporated and rolled out by the company's Chief Nutrition Director, Donna DeCunzo, R.D., L.D. under the name Hyde Park Market. The 11 store chain was sold off by 2000.
The company moved its headquarters to Oklahoma City in 1984, and then to Lewisville, Texas, in 2000 before it went into bankruptcy.
Fleming Companies announced in April 2003 that it had filed for reorganization under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. [4] The company's fortunes had suffered considerably over the previous two years as the result of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission into questionable business and accounting practices. Fleming had also faced a class-action lawsuit from its shareholders over the validity of its public statements, ended its relationship with its largest customer, Kmart, [5] and saw its stock price drop to less than one dollar per share. Peter S. Willmott, a member of the company's board of directors, was appointed to lead Fleming through reorganization.
The plan Willmott adopted provided for the reorganization of Fleming's debtors around Core-Mark, a wholesale distribution company founded in 1888 and acquired by Fleming in June 2002. Fleming's other assets and liabilities were transferred to two special-purpose trusts, to be liquidated. All outstanding common stock in Fleming was canceled.
In August 2003, C&S Wholesale Grocers, Grocers Supply Company, Associated Grocers of Florida, and Associated Wholesale Grocers bought the wholesale grocery business of Fleming. [6] On August 20, 2004, Core-Mark Holding Company, Inc. emerged from the Fleming bankruptcy under the direction of president and CEO J. Michael Walsh. Core-Mark currently serves 20,000 retail locations in the U.S. and Canada, providing marketing programs and distribution and logistics services. Core-Mark relocated its headquarters from South San Francisco to Texas.
Save A Lot Food Stores Ltd. is an American discount supermarket chain store headquartered in St. Ann, Missouri, in Greater St. Louis. It is a subsidiary of Onex Corporation with about 900 independently owned and operated stores across 32 states in the United States with over $4 billion in annual sales.
Piggly Wiggly is an American supermarket chain operating in the American Southern and Midwestern regions run by Piggly Wiggly, LLC, an affiliate of C&S Wholesale Grocers. Its first outlet opened in 1916 in Memphis, Tennessee, and is notable for having been the first true self-service grocery store, and the originator of various familiar supermarket features such as checkout stands, individual item price marking and shopping carts. The current company headquarters is in Keene, New Hampshire. A total of 499 independently owned Piggly Wiggly stores currently operate across 18 states, primarily in smaller cities and towns.
SuperValu, Inc. was an American wholesaler and retailer of grocery products. The company, formerly headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had been in business since 1926. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods (UNFI).
The Penn Traffic Company was founded in 1854 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as a food service company for stagecoaches. It eventually became a general-merchandise department store but by the early 1960s had also returned to the food business through the acquisition of Super Value Corporation, operator of the 10-store Riverside supermarket chain. In 1982, the company sold its department stores and concentrated solely on the food and supermarket business. A series of financial troubles led to Penn Traffic's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing in November 2009 and sale of assets to Tops Markets in early 2010.
Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. (AWG) is the United States's largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets and grocery stores. It serves more than 4,000 locations in 36 states and from 8 full-line wholesale divisions. The consolidated run-rate sales for AWG is close to $10 billion. In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, the company also operates subsidiary companies which provide certain real estate and supermarket development services, digital marketing services, and is a wholesale supply provider of health and beauty care, general merchandise, specialty/international foods and pharmaceutical supplies. It was founded in 1924 as Associated Grocers of Kansas City and was based in Kansas City, Missouri before moving to Kansas City, Kansas. Associated Wholesale Grocers distributes four private-label brands of grocery products, Best Choice, Clearly Organic, Always Save, and Superior Selections along with IGA.
Unified Grocers, originally Unified Western Grocers, was a retailer-owned wholesale grocery cooperative that supplies independent supermarkets in the Western United States. It was formed in 1999 by the merger of two West Coast cooperatives, one based in Oregon and one in Los Angeles: United Grocers of Oregon and Certified Grocers of California. In 2007, it acquired Associated Grocers of Seattle, Washington, and shortened its name to Unified Grocers. The company has its headquarters in Commerce, California.
Grand Union Supermarkets, later known as Grand Union Family Markets and often referred to simply as Grand Union, is an American chain of grocery stores that does business in upstate New York and Vermont, and used to do business throughout most of the northeastern United States. It operated stores in other areas of the country including the midwestern and southeastern states, and internationally in the Caribbean and Canada. The company was founded and headquartered in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and moved to Brooklyn, New York in the early 20th century. Grand Union moved again to Elmwood Park, New Jersey and finally to Wayne, New Jersey before the company was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2001 and sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers.
Foodtown is a northeastern United States supermarket cooperative founded in 1955 by Twin County Grocers in New Jersey. Currently, there are 66 Foodtown stores in New Jersey, New York, and Connecticut. Foodtown's corporate offices are located in Iselin, New Jersey.
Food 4 Less is the name of several grocery store chains, the largest of which is currently owned by Kroger. It is a no-frills grocery store where the customers bag their own groceries at the checkout. Kroger operates Food 4 Less stores in the Chicago metropolitan area, the Fresno area, and Southern California. Kroger operates their stores as Foods Co in northern and central California, because they do not have the rights to the Food 4 Less name in those areas. Other states, such as Nevada, formerly contained Kroger-owned Food 4 Less stores.
C&S Wholesale Grocers is a national wholesale grocery supply company in the United States, based in Keene, New Hampshire. In 2021 it was the eighth-largest privately held company in the United States, as listed by Forbes. C&S owns the Piggly Wiggly grocery brand, which is independently franchised to store operators, the Grand Union supermarkets brand, as well as several private label brands, including Best Yet.
Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. is an American discount closeout retailer consisting exclusively of supermarket locations that offer deeply discounted, overstocked, and closeout products from name brand and private label suppliers. The company has stores in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Nevada, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
BI-LO was an American supermarket chain owned by Southeastern Grocers, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. In the time of the banner’s elimination, supermarkets under the BI-LO brand were operated in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
Roy Furr was the president of the Furr's chain of supermarkets and restaurants after his older brother Key Furr.
Food Fair, also known by its successor name Pantry Pride, was a large supermarket chain in the United States. It was founded by Samuel N. Friedland, who opened the first store in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in the late 1920s. As of 1957, Food Fair had 275 stores, and at its peak, the chain had more than 500 stores. Friedland's family retained control of the firm through 1978, when the chain entered bankruptcy.
McLane is an American wholesale supply chain services company which distributes grocery and non-food to convenience stores, discount retailers, wholesale clubs, drug stores, military bases, quick service restaurants, and casual dining restaurants throughout the United States. It is also a wholesale distributor of distilled spirits, wine, and beer in some US states. McLane is organised in three segments: grocery distribution, serving about 49,000 retail locations, foodservice distribution, catering to about 36,500 chain restaurants, and beverage distribution, servicing about 24,900 retail locations in the Southeastern US and Colorado.
Acosta, is a service, sales and marketing company, makes packaged goods. It's headquarter situated in Jacksonville, Florida. Colorx and Coca-Cola are among some of their clients.
Hannaford is an American supermarket chain based in Scarborough, Maine. Founded in Portland, Maine, in 1883, Hannaford operates stores in New England and New York. The chain is now part of the Ahold Delhaize group based in the Netherlands, and is a sister company to formerly competing New England supermarket chain Stop & Shop.
Belle Foods, LLC was a family-owned chain of American supermarkets headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. The company had a relatively short lifespan. It began operating its rebranded Bruno's and Food World and Piggly Wiggly Stores on July 1, 2012, but filed for bankruptcy just one year later. Before owners Bill White and Jeff White purchased the stores from Southern Family Markets in mid-2012, the 57-store grocery chain employed approximately 3,000 people.
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Southeastern Grocers is a supermarket portfolio headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. The portfolio was created by Lone Star Funds in September 2013 as the new parent company for Harveys, Winn-Dixie, and Fresco y Más. Southeastern Grocers was rated #31 in the Forbes 2015 ranking of America's Largest Private Companies. In February 2017, Anthony Hucker was appointed as President and CEO of Southeastern Grocers.