GNC is owned by the Ontario Teachers' Pension Board Plan, its affiliate Ares Corporate Opportunities Fund II, and management. GNC filed to go public in September 2010.What's good for the customer is good for GNC Acquisition Corporation (formerly General Nutrition Centers). GNC operates the world's leading nutritional-supplements retail chain devoted solely to items such as vitamins and dietary products. The company also makes Rite Aid private-label products. It sells its products online, as well, through a partnership with drugstore.com. GNC has 2,800 company-owned retail stores in the US and Canada; 1,900 store-within-a-store sites in Rite Aid's drugstores; and 2,220 franchised stores in 47 countries.

The regional home improvement center chain was founded in 1962. A management group led by chairman and former CEO Charles Bender acquired the company in 1988 and now owns about one-quarter of Busy Beaver, which is facing heavyweight competition from big-box chains, such as Home Depot and Lowe's. They're busy as, well, you know what kind of animals at Busy Beaver Building Centers. The company has 15 stores in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia selling ceilings, flooring, lumber, plumbing fixtures, and other building materials, along with garden supplies, hardware, power equipment, and tools. Busy Beaver serves the professional contractor as well as the do-it-yourselfer.

Richer Sounds stands behind its name. Founded by then-19-year-old Julian Richer, Richer Sounds PLC today is Britain's biggest hi-fi and electronics retailer, selling audio and video electronics gear from more than 40 stores throughout the UK. Stores sell such products as CD and DVD players, home theater systems, plasma and LCD TVs, speakers, turntables, amplifiers, and more. It also sells its wares from its retail company web site (Mr. Richer guarantees that prices in the two media will always match.) Richer Sounds PLC is owned by chairman Julian Richer, who opened his first store at London Bridge in 1978.

Raymours Furniture Company operates more than 90 retail stores, including about 10 clearance centers, in half a dozen states. It sells furniture for just about every room in the house (bedroom, dining room, home office, living room), offering such pieces as bookcases, entertainment centers, headboards, mattresses, nightstands, recliners, sofas, and tables. Brands such as Broyhill, Hooker, Klaussner, La-Z-Boy, Natuzzi, and Tempur-Pedic are represented. Founded in 1947 by brothers Arnold and Bernard Goldberg, Raymour & Flanigan is run by next-generation Goldbergs, president and CEO Neil and EVPs Michael and Steven.

Spahn & Rose Lumber Co. is a retail lumber company with about 25 locations throughout Iowa and, to a lesser extent, in Illinois and Wisconsin. The company, which was organized in 1904, produces roof and floor truss systems and sells a variety of building supply products from such suppliers as Andersen (windows), Georgia-Pacific (lumber), CertainTeed (building materials), DuPont (plastics and flooring), MidContinent Cabinetry, (cabinets), Stanley Black & Decker (hand tools) and more. Spahn & Rose is promoting a range of green products, including recycled goods, solar reflective windows, and arsenic-free lumber.

USG organized L&W Supply in 1971. At the construction job site A&W can supply the root beer, while L&W can deliver the gypsum wallboard and other building materials. L&W Supply distributes more than 40,000 building products made by its parent company, USG, and other manufacturers through nearly 200 locations in about 35 states. Besides wallboard (which accounts for about 30% of sales), L&W Supply's products include ceilings, insulation, joint treatment and texture products, metal framing, and roofing supplies. It also offers such services as delivery of less-than-truckload quantities, stocking, and lending. The company's customers are primarily builders and contractors.

Balducci's has the right ingredients to attract hungry gourmands.The chain operates half a dozen upscale specialty food stores under the Balducci's name in Connecticut, Maryland, New York,and Virginia.The markets offer such fare as fresh pasta,Wagyu beef,and imported cheeses.It also stocks prepared meals and beer and wine.Louis "Pop" Balducci opened the first Balducci's in Brooklyn in 1915 and expanded to Greenwich Village in Manhattan in 1946.In 2009 the private equity firm Irving Place Capital (formerly Bear Stearns Merchant Banking)sold six Balducci's stores to an investor group led by Jim Demme,senior advisor to the New York City-based investment firm Angelo,Gordon&Co.

Furnitureland South, Inc sells mid-priced to high-end furniture from more than 400 manufacturers. Its 70,000-square-foot Furnitureland Express showroom features several manufacturers including Stanley, Broyhill, and Natuzzi. The company also offers a print and online catalog. (A Catalog Showcase Gallery allows shoppers to stroll through the pages at its retail store.) Founded in 1969 by CEO Darrell Harris -- who delivered the furniture himself in those days -- the family-owned and run company is closed for business on Sundays.

Founded in 1933, Famous Distribution, Inc. is owned and run by the Blaushild family. Tubing isn't always part of leisure in the water. Sometimes it's a part for waterworks, and one of the many products offered by Famous Distribution. In addition to tubing, Famous Distribution offers building facility and energy management systems, controls, fittings, pipes, valves, and other equipment and supplies for air conditioning, heating, industrial maintenance, plumbing, ventilation, and waterworks. Famous Distribution sells its products through about 20 locations in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia under the banners of Famous Supply, Pittsburgh Plumbing and Heating, and JF Good, among others.

E-Z Mart Stores founder Jim Yates kept his first convenience store in Ashdown, Arkansas, open until 11. The company now boasts 300 outlets across five southern states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas). Rather than build its own stores, the company usually expands through acquisitions. In addition to the standard hot dogs, chips, sodas, and cigarettes, most E-Z Mart locations also offer Shell, Conoco, Phillips 66, or CITGO gasoline. Yates died in late 1998 when the plane he was piloting crashed, leaving his daughter Sonja Hubbard at the company's helm as CEO.

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