TOP 17 WHOLESALERS 2004-01-12 (1)

As an industry segment, wholesalers as a group experienced an overall sales boost of 3.3% over the previous year. C&S Wholesale Grocers bought Fleming's grocery wholesaling assets, and became the No. 2 wholesaler in the country.

t stores combine to account for approximately 50% of total sales. Corporate-owned stores encompass 265 price-impact and fresh supermarkets and 384 extreme-value food and general merchandise stores.

2) C&S Wholesale Grocers, Brattleboro, Vt.

0

11.3 e

13

C&S supplies products to a variety of Top 75 retailers, and volume from those companies is reflected in the sales totals for C&S and for each of the individual retailers. C&S volume does not include retail sales from GU Markets, an affiliate of C&S that operates 32 former Grand Union locations.

3) Wakefern Food Corp., Elizabeth, N.J.

49

6.1 a

20

Wakefern supplies products to three other Top 75 companies -- Foodarama, Village Super Markets and Inserra Supermarkets -- and volume from those companies is reflected in the sales totals for Wakefern. Wakefern declined to indicate what percentage of total sales is generated by corporate stores.

4) Nash Finch Co., Minneapolis

109

3.9 e

26

Corporate stores at Nash Finch account for 24% of total sales.

5) Roundy's, Milwaukee

111

3.9 e

27

Corporate stores at Roundy's account for approximately 54% of total sales.

6) Associated Wholesale Grocers, Kansas City, Kan.

74

3.7 e

28

Corporate stores at AWG account for 10% of total sales.

7) Unified Western Grocers, Los Angeles

0

2.8 a

34

8) Spartan Stores, Grand Rapids, Mich.

75

2.2 e

42

Corporate stores, encompassing 54 supermarkets and 21 deep-discount drug stores, account for 45% of total sales.

9) Alex Lee Inc., Hickory, N.C.

108

2.1 a

44

Sales at Alex Lee Inc. include $1.1 billion from Lowes Food Stores, Winston-Salem, N.C.; $1.4 billion from Merchants Distributors Inc., Hickory, N.C., a wholesaler (approximately 47% of whose sales go to Lowes); and $308 million from Institution Food House, Hickory, N.C., a food-service distributor.

10) Purity Wholesale Grocers, Boca Raton, Fla.

0

1.8 e

51

11) Penn Traffic, Syracuse, N.Y.

159

1.7 e

55

Penn Traffic also serves as a wholesaler to 75 licensed franchisees and 42 independent operators. The company is restructuring under Chapter 11 protection, and was opting to sell and close stores prior to the end of the fiscal year that may not be reflected in the numbers in this chart.

12) White Rose Foods, Somerset, N.J.

0

1.5 e

56

White Rose is a division of DiGiorgio Corp.

13) Grocers Supply Co., Houston

0

1.5 e

57

14) Associated Food Stores, Salt Lake City

23

1.3 e

58

Corporate stores at Associated account for 30% of sales.

15) Associated Wholesalers Inc., Robesonia, Pa.

9

1.1 e

63

Corporate stores at AWI account for 7% of total sales.

16) Associated Grocers, Seattle

10

.90 a

69

17) Bozzuto's, Cheshire, Conn.

10

0.89 e

71

Corporate stores at Bozzuto's account for 3% of total sales.