Acosta Inc.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acosta Inc.

Type	Private
Founded	1927
Headquarters	Jacksonville, Florida, USA
Key people	Gary Chartrand, Chairman & CEO Greg Delaney, CFO Robert Hill, President & COO
Industry	Marketing
Products	business consulting for promotions, marketing campaigns & sales; inventory & merchandising services
Revenue	$2.147 billion (2007)
Website	www.acosta.com

Acosta Inc. is the largest sales, marketing and service company in North America. The company, with corporate headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida, was established in 1927 as a food broker in northern Florida. Growth was modest until 1974 when Del Dallas became company president and expansion was at the top of his agenda. An office in Tampa was opened and the service area expanded to central Florida. An office in Birmingham, Alabama was started in 1977. In 1981, the Miami office was opened and Acosta began serving the whole state of Florida. Dallas recognized that the company could grow faster through acquisitions, so Raley Brothers was purchased in 1983, providing an immediate presence in Georgia. Acosta began doing business in the Carolinas in 1989, effectively covering the southeast US. ^[1]

During the early 1990’s, Acosta continued extending its reach through acquisitions in Tennessee, Virginia and Louisiana; the decade also brought mass consolidation of food retailers & manufacturers and centralization of procurement centers. In the mid 1990’s, Gary Chartrand became president and CEO; acquisitions accelerated across the US and Canada. ^[2]

Today, approximately 1,000 US consumer product manufacturers (including Coca-Cola and Pepsi) rely on Acosta to help them position their products in grocery and convenience stores, drug stores, and mass merchandisers in the US and Canada. The company currently represents more #1 and #2 brands than any other sales agency in North America, employing 11,000 and having FY2007 sales of $2.147B. ^[3]