Smart & Final

Smart & Final is a chain of warehouse style food and supply stores based in Los Angeles, California which has developed through a series of mergers and expansions. The oldest of the combined companies was founded in 1871. The company has expanded to over 250 stores in the Western US and Northern Mexico. [ [http://www.smartandfinal.com/history.html Corporate website] history page] . While Smart & Final stores target both the foodservice and household markets, the company also operates Smart Foodservice Cash & Carry stores which focus exclusively on foodservice professionals.

History

Hellman-Haas Grocery sold a wide variety of products including: flour, patent medicines, sheepherding supplies and gunpowder which were the top-selling categories when the store opened for business in 1871 in Los Angeles California. The company name was changed to Haas, Baruch & Co. in 1889, after Abraham Haas and Jacob Baruch bought out Herman Hellman. Abraham Haas later expanded into Northern California food distribution. His son Walter Haas later became president of Levi Straus.

The Santa Ana Grocery Company, which was founded in 1912, mainly supplied feed and grain to local farmers. In 1914, J.S. "Jim" Smart, a banker from Saginaw, Michigan and H.D. "Hildane" Final bought the company and changed the name to Smart & Final Wholesale Grocers. By 1919, sales reached $10 million annually. During the fierce competition among expanding grocers in the 1920s, the company introduced a self-serve concept to replace reliance on clerks to fetch goods. This was called "cash and carry."

In 1953, Smart & Final merged with Haas, Baruch & Co. The current organization is the result of several further mergers, one acquisition (by Thriftimart in 1984) and one spin-off and public offering (1991). [ [http://www.smartmoney.com/stock-screen/index.cfm?story=20041214intro More Takeover Targets] By Jack Hough, Smartmoney.com Published: December 14, 2004] The stores in Mexico are operated under a joint venture with Calimax, a major grocery store chain in northwest Mexico. [ [http://www.smartandfinal.com/facts.html Corporate website] facts page]

In 1998, it acquired Portland, Oregon-based United Grocers Cash & Carry, which was renamed Smart Foodservice Cash & Carry. These stores are concentrated in the Pacific Northwest. In October 2007 the company acquired eight Sun Harvest stores in Texas and twenty-seven Henry's markets in Southern California.

The company was acquired by Apollo Management in 2007. [ [http://www.smartandfinal.com/facts.html Corporate website] facts page]

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Notes

References

* [http://www.sptimes.com/News/042101/Business/Smart__Final_learns_f.shtml Smart & Final learns from mistake] By MARK ALBRIGHT, St. Petersburg Times, published April 21, 2001
* [http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-20-2007/0004530716&EDATE= Smart & Final Inc. to Be Acquired by Apollo Management] LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall
* [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/21/biz_privates07_Smart-Final_WII5.html Forbes profile] Forbes Online

External links

* [http://www.smartandfinal.com/ SmartAndFinal.com]