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As a broadline food distribution specialist, Atlantic Food Distributors( Atlantic) delivers high-quality products and services to a range of restaurants, schools, hospitals, delis, and other food businesses. Since its foundation in 1960, the company has served the northern half of Ohio, covering major markets in Columbus, Akron, Canton, and Cleveland. Craig Jordison, COO, sits down with Food Chain to share more details about the company’ s approach to service, employees, and future growth.“ Originally known as
Atlantic Fish, the business was founded in 1960 when our current owners’ father, Steve Manolakis, would travel from Canton to
Cleveland to purchase fresh fish for his own business,” Craig opens.“ Steve started to sell
extra fish to other restaurants and essentially
established a fish distribution business. It
quickly became apparent that there was local demand for more than fish, so the business made strategic acquisitions over the years to expand its product offering.
“ Today, Atlantic remains family owned and operated by second-generation family member Stan Manolakis. Stan had been working in the business for more than ten years before he took over completely, and his vision was for Atlantic to become a broadline distributor rather than a specialty one. A broadline distributor enables a customer to use a single source for all their products, from fresh poultry and dairy produce to paper goods and cleaning supplies.
“ Although we’ re an independent distributor, we’ re part of a cooperative buying group called Frosty Acres, which has been instrumental to our success,” he adds.“ Frosty Acres is a strong partner for us, not only because they assist us with bringing new
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