S.E. Rykoff & Co., also known as SERCO, was a broad line national wholesale grocer that serviced the restaurant, hotel and institutional trade from regional warehouses, sale forces and truck fleets located primarily on the west coast of the United States. S.E. Rykoff & Co. eventually became US Foods in 1997 by merging with JP Foodservice. The company traces its roots to a small family grocery store opened by Harry and Ida Rykoff in Los Angeles, California in 1911.
Early history
The Harry and Ida Rykoff Family moved from Sioux City, Iowa, to Los Angeles in 1910. The family opened a small grocery store near Union Station in downtown Los Angeles. They had nine children. In 1919, their son Saul returned from military service in World War I and rejoined his parents’ grocery store. Saul realized that selling food by the wagon load to large users was better business than selling to individuals. Saul proposed that the family focus on wholesaling. The company, S.E. Rykoff & Co., is named after Saul. Its slogan was "Home of the Gallon Goods", which referred to the foodservice industry #10 can size. Saul focused on distributing to restaurants and other institutional customers of canned goods and dry groceries in and around Los Angeles. S.E. Rykoff & Co. was incorporated in 1950. Saul E. Rykoff died April 26, 1967, and was survived by his wife Saragrace and three children Thomas, Stephen and Ruth Coleman.
S.E. Rykoff & Co. expansion
On June 15, 1967, Saul's son-in-law Roger Coleman was elected president and chief executive officer of S.E. Rykoff & Co. Coleman had been a board member of the company since 1960. In 1969, Rykoff was generating about $900k in profits on sales of $54 million. Coleman believed that expanding Rykoff's distribution network, sales force and product offerings were the best way to increase value of the company. Rather than relying solely on internal expansion, Coleman initiated the strategy of acquiring small regional wholesale distributors in markets that Rykoff wanted to enter. Roger Coleman viewed it far easier to buy an establish wholesale grocery company in a new territory rather than build a sale force and distribution network from scratch. In 1969, Rykoff purchased S&W Fine Foods of San Francisco (later acquired by Del Monte Foods). S&W had a strong distribution network in Northern California.
To fund the acquisition and internal growth strategy and to satisfy the Rykoff family members looking for liquidity, S.E. Rykoff & Co. became a public company. In October 1972, S.E. Rykoff & Co. issued 400,000 shares at $25 par value in the over the counter market (NASDAQ). S.E. Rykoff & Co. was generating $1.9 million in profits with revenue of $75.9 million. 200,000 shares were used to repay short-term debt and to augment working capital. The remaining 200,000 shares were sold by family members.
With the new access to capital and less of the Rykoff Family involvement, S.E. Rykoff & Co. purchased Louis Enders a Brooklyn, New York based food product supplier that distributed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. In the Enders deal structure, S.E. Rykoff & Co. exchanged 130,000 share of company stock for ownership of Louis Enders business and operating assets. Louis Enders management was kept in place and S.E. Rykoff & Co. products were added. In March 1973, S.E. Rykoff & Co. purchased the assets of Schuss Wholesale Grocery Company of Portland, Oregon. In addition, S.E. Rykoff & Co. purchased the southern California and Arizona coffee distribution business of General Foods for an undisclosed amount. In 1974, S.E. Rykoff & Co. purchased Reliable Glassware & Equipment Co. of Los Angeles ($1.5 million in sales) for an undisclosed amount of cash. That same year, S.E. Rykoff & Co. purchased C.L. Chaban Co. ($2 million in sales) a San Francisco distributor of restaurant supplies and equipment.