Topco Associates is a top company in terms of private-label procurement. Topco uses the combined purchasing clout of more than 60 member companies (mostly supermarket operators and foodservice suppliers) nationwide to wring discounts from wholesalers and manufacturers. Topco distributes more than 5,000 private-label items, including fresh meat and produce, dairy and bakery goods, and health and beauty aids, to retail locations throughout the US. Its brands include Food Club, Shurfine, and a line of "Top" labels such as Top Crest and Top Care. In addition to procurement, Topco helps its members contain costs through financial-services programs and other business services.

Spartan Stores, Inc. operates as a grocery distributor and grocery retailer principally in Michigan and Indiana. The company operates in two segments, Distribution and Retail. The Distribution segment provides approximately 43,000 stock-keeping units, including dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, deli, bakery, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, pharmacy, and health and beauty care items to approximately 375 independent grocery stores and 96 corporate-owned stores. It also offers approximately 3,200 private label grocery and general merchandise items, as well as provides value-added services, including site identification and market analyses, store planning and development, marketing, promotion, advertising, technology and information, accounting and tax preparation, human resource, coupon redemption, product reclamation, printing, category management, real estate, and construction management services. The Retail segment operates retail supermarkets under the banners comprising Glen's Markets, Family Fare Supermarkets, D&W Fresh Markets, Felpausch Food Centers, and VG's Food and Pharmacy. It operates approximately 96 retail supermarkets that offer dry groceries, produce, dairy products, meat, frozen food, seafood, floral products, general merchandise, beverages, tobacco products, health and beauty care products, delicatessen items, and bakery goods; and 66 supermarkets that offer pharmacy services. It also offers private label items, including its Spartan brand; Top Care, a health and beauty care brand label; Valu Time, a value brand; and Full Circle, a natural and organic brand. In addition, this segment operates 24 fuel centers under the banners of D&W Quick Stop, Family Fare Quick Stop, Glen's Quick Stop, Felpausch Quick Stop, and V.G.'s Quick Stop that offer refueling facilities, as well as a convenience store providing consumable products. The company was founded in 1917 and is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Tamro is one of the top wholesalers and distributors of pharmaceuticals in Northern Europe, claiming a 54% market share in Nordic countries. Customers include hospitals, clinics, physician offices, and pharmacies. In addition to its 20 distribution centers in eight countries, the company has retail pharmacies in Estonia (as Apteek 1), Lativa (under the Gimenes Aptieka name), Lithuania (as Seimos Vaistine), Poland, and Norway (through Apokjeden Group). Tamro Corporation also operates in Russia through its 42% ownership of wholesaler ZAO Rosta. Tamro is owned by German drug distributor PHOENIX Pharmahandel.

WaltKoch (pronounced "Walt Cook") is a distributor of frozen food that serves supermarket chains, wholesalers, and other foodservice distributors primarily in the Caribbean region and Latin America. The company exports products under the Bouquet name. It specializes in frozen meats (lamb, goat, pork), poultry (chicken, turkey), and vegetables, as well as frozen bread, ice cream, cheesecake, pizza, seafood. WaltKoch also distributes french fries and specialty items, such as egg rolls. The family-owned business was founded in 1949.

Sherwood Food Distributors,a large independent food wholesale distributor, the company ships more than 16 million pounds of food a week to grocery retailers and wholesalers and foodservice operators in the Midwest and southeastern US. It carries beef, pork, lamb, veal, poultry, and seafood, along with dairy, bakery, deli, cleaning products and more. Sherwood boasts 5,000 customers and five distribution centers in Atlanta, Cleveland, Detroit, Miami, and Walton, Kentucky. It operates a fleet of some 250 trucks. Sherwood Food Distributors was formed in 1987 through the merger of the food distribution operations of Orleans International and Regal Packaging.

Bestway is the UK's second-largest grocery wholesaler (behind Booker), trading from more than 50 warehouses throughout the UK. It was founded by Mohammed Anwar Pervez in 1962 as a single Asian food store, then moved into the wholesale arena in 1976 with its first cash and carry warehouse in London. Bestway boasts a product line of more than 50,000 items sold under the private brand Best-in and serves about 100,000 independent retailers. In 2005, Bestway acquired rival Batley's for £100 million. In 2010, the company merged the buying functions of its Batley's and Bestway businesses.

Pharmaceutical distribution company Mediq (formerly OPG Groep) is involved in both commercial wholesaling and consumer retailing of drugs and other health care supplies. In the Netherlands, the company has about 200 retail pharmacies (through Mediq Pharmacy) and operates drug and medical supply wholesalers that serve other pharmacies as well as hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes. It also provides related technology and logistics services. Mediq's international operations include wholesale and retail businesses in Poland, as well as other European countries and the US. It entered five new countries and greatly enhanced its medical device offerings with the 2010 buy of Oriola-KD for about $108 million.

Quirch Foods is a leading wholesale supplier of meat products and other food items to grocers, foodservice operators, and other customers, primarily in Florida and parts of five other southeastern states. It has three distribution facilities that supply such goods as fresh beef, pork, poultry, and seafood, as well as deli-case meats and frozen foods. The company also distributes food items for the Hispanic market under its own Quirch, Panamei, and Mambo brands. In addition to domestic markets, Quirch Foods distributes goods in Puerto Rico, and it exports refrigerated foods to Central and South America and the Caribbean. The family-owned company was started as E&G Trading by Guillermo Quirch in 1967.

C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. is the second-largest wholesale grocery distributor in the US (after SUPERVALU), supplying goods to some 3,900 independent and major supermarkets (including A&P and Safeway), mass marketers, and wholesale clubs. C&S Wholesale, which serves about 10 states, distributes more than 95,000 food and nonfood items from more than 50 facilities. Beyond distributing, C&S's Southern Family Markets division operates about 60 grocery stores and 10 liquor outlets under the Piggly Wiggly, Bruno's, Food World, and Southern Family Markets banners. Its ES3 logistics unit provides warehousing and supply-chain management services.

Franz Haniel & Cie. is a five-headed hydra. The holding company is comprised of a handful of operating divisions -- Celesio, CWS-boco, ELG, TAKKT, and METRO -- each of which specializes in a different core business. Haniel derives the bulk of its sales from distributing pharmaceuticals to pharmacies worldwide through drug wholesaler Celesio. Its other divisions offer washroom and workwear products and services; stainless steel scrap recycling; mail-order of office and warehouse equipment; and retail store operations. Haniel has operations in some 30 countries. Members of the Haniel family have controlled Franz Haniel and Cie. GmbH company since its founding in 1756.

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