Company Profile
Company Overview
C&S Wholesale Grocers of Keene, NH is the second-largest food wholesaler and the tenth largest privately held company in the United States.
The company distributes food to supermarkets, retail stores, and military bases across the country. Currently, C&S serves over 5,000 stores from
over 70 locations in 12 states.
C&S supports initiatives to stop hunger and to promote the health and enrichment of communities that are homes to our employees and facilities.
Among our customers are many of America's best known companies, including Stop & Shop, Royal Ahold (Giant-Carlisle and Giant-Landover), Albertson's (Shaw's), Big Y, Bi-Lo/Bruno's, BJ's, Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. (A&P), Pathmark, Safeway, and Target.
For over 85 years, C&S has provided first-class warehousing & distribution services to our customers. In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked C&S the 10th largest privately held company in the nation. From over 70 warehouse facilities throughout the United States, C&S Associates serve some of the largest supermarket chains in the nation.
C&S is an innovative, fast-paced company that:
Offers wholesale food distribution to grocery chains and large independent food stores throughout the United States.
Provides 53,000 food and nonfood items to 5,000 corporate customers, including produce, meat, dairy products, delicatessen products, fresh/frozen bakery items, health and beauty aids, candy and tobacco.
Our customers include such food giants as:
Pathmark, Safeway, Giant Food Stores, Shaw's, Stop and Shop, A&P Food Mart, Big Y Foods, BJ's Warehouse, Great American, SavMart/Foodmax, Demoulas and independent store/supermarket owner/operators.
Company History
Israel Cohen, company founder, began his career in the wholesale grocery business in the early 1900's. While working in Worcester, Massachusetts for $25 a week, Israel reasoned that he could make a greater profit and provide better service on his own. Together with his business partner, Abraham Siegel, he founded C&S Wholesale Grocers in 1918. The company's 5,000-sq. ft., three-story warehouse facility was located on Winter Street in Worcester, managed by three warehouse workers who oversaw 1,200 grocery products.
Competition was fierce in the wholesale grocery industry. Growing urban populations were demanding more from their tiny neighborhood stores while an economic war was threatening to permanently change food distribution. Different wholesale companies served many independent grocers, resulting in fragmentation and inefficiency.
The average wholesaler attended hundreds of small retail customers, using multiple copies of buying orders to price, extend credit, bill, select, and deliver products. In 1933, for example, United States wholesalers received 12% of their orders from retail stores whose annual volume was under $10,000 and 87% from stores which averaged $32,960 in annual sales.
Average gross margins of all wholesale grocers at this time were about 11% of wholesale value. Following World War I, independent retailers began to band together, forming cooperatives. These cooperatives increased buying power and gave wholesalers the ability to share large orders and consequently, benefit from the economies of scale.
In 1955, C&S, a successful, mid-sized wholesale company, was ready for another move. This time it was to a 35,000-sq. ft. facility on Millbrook Street in Worcester. Lester enjoyed the business and was working with his father full time now. A born salesman, Lester was soon "pounding the pavement," calling on thirty small grocers a day and returning to visit each one weekly. He worked hard at sales and his perseverance paid off; C&S now had more business than ever before. Israel saw that his son had the talent and inventiveness to take C&S to the next level so he transferred executive power over to Lester.
In 1958, C&S' pivotal moment came when C&S won the Big D supermarket account. This eight-store chain was ahead of its time, an industry leader that signaled C&S' transition from small independent stores to supermarket chains. When other supermarkets learned that the innovative Big D was working with C&S, they too looked to C&S to service their stores. The company focused on the acquisition of larger supermarket accounts, its sales soon reaching $2 million. After just eight years at the Millbrook Street storage place, C&S needed more warehouse space and, in 1963, moved to a 200,000 sq. ft. facility on Pullman Street, the former home of the famous Pullman train cars. Here, innovative thinking soon equipped the Pullman Street warehouse.
C&S now faced a difficult situation. The company needed modern warehouse facilities to serve the large supermarkets. Conversely, it required large supermarket contracts to afford modern warehouse facilities. Moreover, the outdated Pullman Street facility could not service the large contracts. Thus, a tough decision had to be made.
Much to his father's surprise, Rick determined that the business must move west. C&S needed a larger location with better access to interstate highways, a good work force, and new markets, in order to survive in the shrinking wholesale industry. Rick also developed the company's unique strategy of supplying mostly large supermarket chains.
Today, C&S can provide supplies to a chain at a lower cost than the market could supply itself. To support the new strategy, C&S built a 300,000 sq. ft. warehouse and distribution complex in Brattleboro, Vermont in 1981.
The move came at an exciting, but challenging time for the company. The new space was 50% larger than the Pullman Street location, and had been costly to build. Employees were asked to take temporary pay cuts and everyone worked together to keep the business running. The goal was to reach $300 million in sales in the next five years, though many doubted that C&S would even survive for two years.
Rick's calculations proved correct. A&P supermarkets who previously believed that C&S did not have the capacity to meet their needs, were impressed with the new, modern Brattleboro facility and soon gave C&S their business. Other large supermarkets such as Edward's, Walbaum's, and Stop & Shop quickly followed suit. Earnings rose and employees were soon making even more than they had before the pay cuts.
By the mid 1960's three factors had dramatically altered the role of the wholesaler.
Small retailers began to follow Big D's lead, opening multiple retail store locations. By the 1970's many retailers operated eleven or more stores, becoming known as supermarket chains.
As supermarket chains grew, they needed to be located at greater distances from each other so not to compete for the same customers. As a result of this, many chains consolidated and closed their inefficient and outdated warehouses.
This suddenly generated tremendous opportunities for wholesalers to provide buying, warehousing, and distribution services to the growing supermarket chains.
In 1974, Lester's son Rick joined the company. By this time, C&S had grown to annual sales of $14 million. However, the lack of a modern warehouse facility severely hindered further growth. The Pullman Street warehouse was over one hundred years old and lacked the design structure necessary to satisfy modern food wholesale techniques. Its ceilings were too low and could not efficiently accommodate the growth that C&S hoped to achieve.
When Lester Cohen started work at C&S upon his return from the war, he quickly developed an affinity for the wholesale business, an industry whose nature was changing rapidly. Manufacturers were recognizing the power of associations such as the National Retailer-Owned Grocers and other well-established cooperatives.
Unlike many other wholesalers, C&S resisted going into retail, preferring instead to focus on distribution and warehousing services. It was in this latter area that Lester discovered the same knack for innovation that set his father apart from other wholesale grocers.
During customer visits, he had noticed a roller system used by some companies to move grocery boxes through the warehouse. Intrigued by the speed and efficiency of a system faster than his father's two-wheeled carts, he suggested implementing one at C&S. His father thought the idea ridiculous, but authorized $200 for the purchase of rollers.
Israel was impressed with an entire warehouse operating with the roller system; its time saving and efficiency gave C&S a delivery advantage and attracted new customers. A friend provided Israel another innovative idea when he attended a wholesalers' convention. Instead of two workers, Israel's friend staffed his trucks with just one employee a driver who was also a salesman.
What seems a simple solution today was revolutionary at that time. Israel soon cut his delivery costs in half by the simple expedient of one person who both drove the truck and was a salesperson for the company.
Benefits
C&S offers an extremely competitive benefits package to its employees. Benefits may include:
Competitive salaries
Tuition reimbursement
401K retirement plan
Health, Dental & Vision
Short and Long-term Disability
Paid vacation and personal days
Company-paid and Voluntary Life Insurance
AD&D Insurance
Auto/Home Insurance
Long-Term (Elder) Care
Legal Insurance
Pet Insurance
Employee Assistance Program
C&S provides a variety of other programs and policies to help you balance your commitment to meeting the needs of our business with your personal, family and community responsibilities.