Max Mara Fashion Group is taking leading-edge apparel design to the max. Max Mara Fashion Group S.r.l. clothes some of the finest women in the world (including ESPN Monday Night Football's female reporters). It touts more than 20 labels, including the flagship Max Mara (high-end contemporary career, bridal, and sportswear); Marina Rinaldi (plus-sized fashions); and iBlues, Marella, and Penny Black (lower-priced lines). One of Italy's largest fashion firms, Max Mara Fashion Group S.r.l. company operates more than 2,300 boutiques in 90 countries worldwide, and it sells through such retailers as Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Barneys. Started in the 1950s, Max Mara is owned and run by the family of founder Achille Maramotti, who died in 2005.

In response, Albert Heijn has undergone an image makeover; from the most expensive supermarket in Holland to a price-competitive supermarket chain. There's nothing small time about Albert Heijn, who began selling groceries in the 1880s and whose namesake chain is now the #1 food retailer in the Netherlands. With more than 820 company-owned and franchised supermarkets and AH to Go convenience stores throughout the tiny country, the Albert Heijn chain is the flagship banner of Royal Ahold, contributing more than a third of its parent's sales. The grocery chain has a 22% share of the local market, but is losing ground to competitors, including hard discounter ALDI of Germany and region rivals Laurus N.V. and Edah.

In 1953, a single modest store began operating in Portland, Oregon to serve the needs of local contractors. That first Johnstone Supply may have been small, but it operated with a commitment to finding the best products for its customers and servicing them like nobody else. Today, Johnstone Supply is the top cooperative wholesale distributor in the country and a recognized national leader in the HVACR industry. With regional distribution centers based in Portland, Oregon, Memphis, Tennessee, Allentown, Pennsylvania, and Jacksonville, Florida, the company boasts over 350 independently-owned stores throughout the United States and beyond, totaling over a billion dollars in annual sales. Unbeatable service, support, product knowledge and competitive pricing remain Johnstone’s core values. An expanding regional distribution network means even better product availability and delivery times for local contactors, and ongoing improvements to our distribution and operations systems means Johnstone is poised to remain a true “one-stop-shop” for contractors nationwide. We offer superior customer service, technical advice and training seminars and feature the industry’s most respected catalog (available both in print and online) featuring more than 50,000 quality parts, supplies and equipment.

Replacements, Ltd. offers new and previously owned china, crystal, flatware, and collectibles from its facilities spanning more than 400,000 sq. ft. Its inventory consists of some 13 million pieces in more than 300,000 patterns. In addition to its bridal and gift registry, Replacements' website features a dinnerware knowledge base, place-setting guides, pattern identification tools, and showroom tour. Customers can place their orders by mail, phone, fax, e-mail, and online. The company was founded by president and CEO Bob Page in 1981.

Saks Incorporated began as Proffitt’s, Inc. with just five Proffitt’s stores in metropolitan Knoxville, Tennessee. Proffitt's, Inc. became a public company in June 1987. From 1994 to 1998, we added McRae’s, Parisian, Younkers, Herberger's, and Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (which included Bergner's and Boston Store) as well as 32 additional stores from Lovemans, Hess, Parks-Belk, and Brody’s, which were converted into existing store nameplates.

Luckily, Ace has John Madden up its sleeve. Despite the growth of warehouse-style competitors, Ace Hardware has remained a household name, thanks to ads featuring Madden, a former Oakland Raiders football coach and retired TV commentator. By sales the company is the #1 hardware cooperative in the US, ahead of Do It Best. Ace dealer-owners operate about 4,500 Ace Hardware stores, home centers, and lumber and building materials locations in all 50 US states and more than 60 other countries. From about 15 warehouses Ace distributes such products as electrical and plumbing supplies, garden equipment, hand tools, housewares, and power tools. Its paint division is also a major paint manufacturer in the US.

The CARQUEST group includes a network of about 40 distribution centers serving more than 3,400 distributor-owned and independent jobbers in the US, Canada, and Mexico. The company sells its own line of auto parts (made by Moog Automotive, Dana, Gates, and others) to the jobbers, as well as wholesalers, for eventual resale to professional repair centers, service stations, dealerships, and, to a lesser degree, do-it-yourself (DIY) customers. Searching for a sensor, solenoid, or switches? CARQUEST can steer you in the right direction. The replacement auto parts distribution group is owned by its member warehouse distributors (the largest is North Carolina-based General Parts).

Mothercare plc sells maternity, baby, and children's clothes; nursery equipment; and toys from more than 1,000 company-owned and franchised stores, more than 600 of which are outside the UK. Mothercare operates in about 50 countries, primarily in other parts of Europe, the Middle and Far East, and in Africa and Southeast Asia. It also offers its merchandise, including the in-house MODA maternity clothing line, through catalogs and its website. Mothercare boosted its presence in the retail toy market with its purchase of the Early Learning Centre (ELC) in 2007. While the firm has struggled at home, it has been successful overseas, particularly in Russia and India.

REWE Group other businesses include about 2,500 travel agencies, several tour operators, and foodservice. Founded in 1927, REWE is a cooperative owned by some 3,000 of its independent retail members.REWE Group sells the fuel that Germans love best food and drink. REWE is the third-largest food retailer in Germany (behind METRO AG and Lidl) and one of the largest in Europe overall. REWE operates more than 15,000 stores in some 15 European countries (about 10,900 in Germany), including Russia and Ukraine. Store formats include supermarkets (REWE), hypermarkets (toom), discount stores (Penny), drugstores (BIPA), DIY stores (toom Baumarkt), and consumer electronics stores (ProMarkt), among others.

Wallis Companies is a leading gasoline distributor in Missouri and the Midwest. The company's convenience store division operates about 40 locations in the Show Me State and services more than 140 other stores, including Exxon Mobil 's On The Run shops and BP Pump Handle stores. Other businesses include the Hen House restaurant in Bourbon, Missouri, as well as Wallis Lubricants (automotive and industrial lubricants) and the Great River Wash Company (distributes car wash equipment). Wallis Companies was founded in 1968 by Bill Wallis and today is run by his wife, Lynn Wallis, who took control of the company when he died.

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