C&S Wholesale Grocers
Encyclopedia
C&S Wholesale Grocers is a wholesale
distributor
of food
and grocery store
items. With its headquarters
in Keene
, New Hampshire
, C&S is the twelfth-largest privately held company
in the United States
, as listed in 2008 by Forbes
. , they are the eighth-largest such company. Subsidiaries include Birmingham
, Alabama
based Bruno's, Food World, Piggly Wiggly
and Southern Family Markets
; and New Jersey-based Grand Union.
C&S provides more than 95,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs)
food and nonfood items to 4,600 corporate customers, including produce, meat, dairy products, delicatessen products, fresh/frozen bakery items, health and beauty aids, candy, and tobacco. C&S has 15,000 associates in 11 states, and storage space of more than 15 million square feet.
C&S customers include Bruno's, Food World, Piggly Wiggly
, Southern Family Markets
, Pathmark
, Safeway Inc.
, Food Giant
Stores, Shaw's Supermarkets
, Stop & Shop
, A&P Supermarkets, Target Corporation
, Tops Markets LLC
, BiLo Foods
, P&C Foods, Quality Markets
, Great American, SavMart/Foodmax, DeMoulas, and independent store/supermarket owner/operators.
. Rick Cohen, the third generation of the Cohen family to run the company, is the CEO.
C&S grew dramatically in 1958 after it began serving supermarket chain Big D in Worcester.
In 1981, C&S moved into a 300000 square feet (27,870.9 m²) warehouse in Brattleboro, Vermont
. With the move, it began serving several large supermarket chains, including A&P.
In 2001, C&S moved into retailing as it acquired the Grand Union company (now Grand Union Family Markets.) It was Grand Union's largest unsecured creditor when Grand Union declared bankruptcy, making a stalking horse offer
.
Wholesale
Wholesaling, jobbing, or distributing is defined as the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers, to industrial, commercial, institutional, or other professional business users, or to other wholesalers and related subordinated services...
distributor
Distributor
A distributor is a device in the ignition system of an internal combustion engine that routes high voltage from the ignition coil to the spark plugs in the correct firing order. The first reliable battery operated ignition was developed by Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. and introduced in the...
of food
Food
Food is any substance consumed to provide nutritional support for the body. It is usually of plant or animal origin, and contains essential nutrients, such as carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, or minerals...
and grocery store
Grocery store
A grocery store is a store that retails food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells these "groceries" to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are...
items. With its headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
in Keene
Keene, New Hampshire
Keene is a city in Cheshire County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 23,409 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Cheshire County.Keene is home to Keene State College and Antioch University New England, and hosts the annual Pumpkin Fest...
, New Hampshire
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, C&S is the twelfth-largest privately held company
Privately held company
A privately held company or close corporation is a business company owned either by non-governmental organizations or by a relatively small number of shareholders or company members which does not offer or trade its company stock to the general public on the stock market exchanges, but rather the...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, as listed in 2008 by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
. , they are the eighth-largest such company. Subsidiaries include Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama. The city is the county seat of Jefferson County. According to the 2010 United States Census, Birmingham had a population of 212,237. The Birmingham-Hoover Metropolitan Area, in estimate by the U.S...
, Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
based Bruno's, Food World, Piggly Wiggly
Southern Family Markets
Southern Family Markets, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a chain of American supermarkets owned and operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a distributor based in Keene, New Hampshire. The chain is operated as an affiliate of C&S...
and Southern Family Markets
Southern Family Markets
Southern Family Markets, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a chain of American supermarkets owned and operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a distributor based in Keene, New Hampshire. The chain is operated as an affiliate of C&S...
; and New Jersey-based Grand Union.
C&S provides more than 95,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs)
food and nonfood items to 4,600 corporate customers, including produce, meat, dairy products, delicatessen products, fresh/frozen bakery items, health and beauty aids, candy, and tobacco. C&S has 15,000 associates in 11 states, and storage space of more than 15 million square feet.
C&S customers include Bruno's, Food World, Piggly Wiggly
Southern Family Markets
Southern Family Markets, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a chain of American supermarkets owned and operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a distributor based in Keene, New Hampshire. The chain is operated as an affiliate of C&S...
, Southern Family Markets
Southern Family Markets
Southern Family Markets, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, is a chain of American supermarkets owned and operated by C&S Wholesale Grocers, a distributor based in Keene, New Hampshire. The chain is operated as an affiliate of C&S...
, Pathmark
Pathmark
Pathmark is a supermarket chain headquartered in Montvale, New Jersey. It was founded in 1968 when its then parent, Supermarkets General Corporation, pulled out of the ShopRite retailers' cooperative...
, Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc.
Safeway Inc. , a Fortune 500 company, is North America's second largest supermarket chain after The Kroger Co., with, as of December 2010, 1,694 stores located throughout the western and central United States and western Canada. It also operates some stores in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Eastern...
, Food Giant
Houchens Industries
Houchens Industries, is an American employee-owned company, in business since 1918 when it began as a small grocery operated by founder Ervin Houchens in rural Barren County, Kentucky. The company is headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The company runs about 425 grocery and convenience stores...
Stores, Shaw's Supermarkets
Shaw's Supermarkets
Shaw's, along with companion store Star Market, are wholly owned subsidiaries of Eden Prairie, Minnesota-based SuperValu. Together, Shaw's and Star Market comprise the third-largest grocery chain headquartered in New England; behind Stop & Shop and Hannaford, although Shaw’s is the largest grocery...
, Stop & Shop
Stop & Shop
The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company is a chain of supermarkets located mostly in the northeastern United States. Its main rivals are Shaw's Star Market and Hannaford in New England, while ShopRite and the A&P family of supermarkets are its main competition in New York and New Jersey.- History :Stop...
, A&P Supermarkets, Target Corporation
Target Corporation
Target Corporation, doing business as Target, is an American retailing company headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company is ranked at number 33 on the Fortune 500 and is a component of the Standard & Poor's...
, Tops Markets LLC
Tops Markets LLC
Tops Friendly Markets is an American supermarket chain based in Williamsville, New York, with stores in the western and central regions of that state and in northern Pennsylvania-Early years:...
, BiLo Foods
BI-LO (United States)
BI-LO is a supermarket chain headquartered in Mauldin, South Carolina. As of May 2010, BI-LO operates 207 supermarkets in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. The company employs approximately 17,000 people. Supermarket News ranked BI-LO No...
, P&C Foods, Quality Markets
Quality Markets
Quality Markets was an American supermarket chain, with stores in Western New York and northwestern Pennsylvania. It was a subsidiary of Penn Traffic, but is now a division of Tops Markets LLC.- History :...
, Great American, SavMart/Foodmax, DeMoulas, and independent store/supermarket owner/operators.
History
C&S was founded by Israel Cohen and Abraham Siegel in 1918 in Worcester, MassachusettsWorcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
. Rick Cohen, the third generation of the Cohen family to run the company, is the CEO.
C&S grew dramatically in 1958 after it began serving supermarket chain Big D in Worcester.
In 1981, C&S moved into a 300000 square feet (27,870.9 m²) warehouse in Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro, Vermont
Brattleboro, originally Brattleborough, is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States, located in the southeast corner of the state, along the state line with New Hampshire. The population was 12,046 at the 2010 census...
. With the move, it began serving several large supermarket chains, including A&P.
In 2001, C&S moved into retailing as it acquired the Grand Union company (now Grand Union Family Markets.) It was Grand Union's largest unsecured creditor when Grand Union declared bankruptcy, making a stalking horse offer
Stalking horse offer
A stalking horse offer, agreement, or bid is an attempt by a debtor to test the market in advance of an auction. The intent is to maximize the value of its assets as part of a bankruptcy court-approved auction process.- Procedure :...
.
Litigation
- January 2009: Lawsuits were filed in federal courts in WisconsinWisconsinWisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
and New HampshireNew HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
alleging that C&S and SuperValuSupervalu (United States)SuperValu Inc. is a United States grocery retailer and distributor. The corporation, headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has been in business for over a century. It is the third-largest food retailing company in the United States , and ranks #51 on the Fortune 100 list.On June 2, 2006,...
engaged in collusion to allocate markets and reduce competition. The charges stemmed from a 2003 asset swapAsset swapAn asset swap is an exchange of tangible assets for intangible assets or vice versa. Since it is a swap of assets, the procedure takes place on the active side of the balance sheet and has no impact on the latter in regards to volume...
in which SuperValu swapped distribution centers in the Northeast with C&S's centers in the Midwest with suits claiming that each had indicated it would not compete in the other's territory. The agreement raised red flagRed flagIn politics, a red flag is a symbol of Socialism, or Communism, or sometimes left-wing politics in general. It has been associated with left-wing politics since the French Revolution. Socialists adopted the symbol during the Revolutions of 1848 and it became a symbol of communism as a result of its...
s when C&S closed its newly-acquired distribution centers shortly after the deal. - December 2010: A&P filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, citing in court papers that, among other causes, A&P made an "unfavorable" arrangement with C&S where A&P was required to get 70 percent of its inventory from C&S.