CFS Continental, Inc. was a wholesale food distributor started in 1915 by Jacob Cohn (b. 1894, d. 1968) in Chicago as the Continental Coffee Company. It is now part of

Sysco Sysco Corporation (short for Systems and Services Company) is an American multinational corporation involved in marketing and distributing food products, smallwares, kitchen equipment and tabletop items to restaurants, healthcare and education ...

History

The wholesale food distributor started in 1915 by Jacob Cohn (b. 1894, d. 1968) in Chicago as the Continental Coffee Company. Cohn began by selling coffee by horse and wagon to small restaurants in Chicago. By 1967, the Continental Coffee was led by brothers Alvin Cohn (b. 1921, d. 1994) and Robert Cohn. The brothers began purchasing regional wholesale grocery companies to supplement Continental Coffee's national coffee business. In 1970, Continental Coffee Company went public. In 1973, Continental Coffee Company changed its name to CFS Continental, Inc. to reflect the growing importance of foodservice to their traditional coffee business. In 1985, CFS Continental, Inc. with $1.6 billion in annual sales was purchased by the soybean and corn processor A.E. Staley for $360 million. The owners, in the Chicago area, had to give over 50% of their profit to taxes and debt. After the acquisition, A.E. Staley changed its name to Staley Continental. In 1988 British food processor

Tate & Lyle Tate & Lyle PLC is a British-headquartered, global supplier of food and beverage ingredients to industrial markets. It was originally a sugar refining business, but from the 1970s it began to diversify, eventually divesting its sugar business i ...

purchased A.E. Staley Company for $1.42 billion. The owners in this second purchase came from southern Illinois. To help finance the A.E. Staley acquisition, Tate & Lyle pre-sold CFS Continental to the foodservice giant

for $360 million. Not forgetting the owners had to give over 50% of their profit to taxes and debt. Sysco generated sales of $3.7 billion (1987) and CFS Continental generated sales of $2.4 billion (1987). CFS Continental operations purchased by Sysco included all brands, distribution facilities and equipment; wholesale grocery sales force; NCD Detergents; the Gregg's Food Products/ Re-Mi Group, which manufactured more than 350 food items such as salad dressings and puddings; Continental Coffee; the Interstate Foods Group (shortening); and Fresh Start Bakeries, which produced hamburger buns and English muffins for

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...

Corp. CFS Continental distribution and sales force were particular strong on the west coast,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

where Sysco did not have a strong presences. Sysco was primarily interested in CFS Continental's wholesale grocery business and therefore, prior to the purchase of ''CFS Continental'' from Tate & Lyle, Sysco had pre-sold the non-core manufacturing businesses. Quaker Oats purchased Continental Coffee (undisclosed price). Fresh Start Foods, a management buy out team financed by

Berkshire Partners Berkshire Partners is an American private equity firm based in Boston. It has invested in over 100 middle market companies since 1986 through nine investment funds with aggregate capital commitments of more than $16 billion. Berkshire has devel ...

bought the two manufacturing divisions that supplied McDonald's Corp.: Interstate Foods Group (shortening) and Fresh Start Bakeries to (price not disclosed). The shortening manufacturing facilities were located in Chicago and Los Angeles. The Fresh Start bakeries were located California,

Kansas Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to th ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only state ...

, West Germany and Brazil. Borden Inc. bought Gregg's Food Products/Re-Mi Group. NCD Detergents, INC. was sold to

Ecolab Ecolab Inc. is an American corporation that is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It develops and offers services, technology and systems that specialize in treatment, purification, cleaning and hygiene of water in a wide variety of applic ...

. Sysco raised an estimated $250 million in the divestiture of the ''CFS Continental'' manufacturing divisions.

References

{{Reflist Catering and food service companies of the United States Food and drink companies established in 1915 Defunct companies based in Chicago Business services companies established in 1915 1915 establishments in Illinois Food and drink companies disestablished in 1988 1988 disestablishments in Illinois