Core-Mark Holding Company (NASDAQ: CORE), (formerly Fleming Cos.), is a supplier of consumer package goods to retailers in the United States.
Contents

* 1 History
o 1.1 Glaser Brothers
o 1.2 Core-Mark
* 2 External links

History
Glaser Brothers

In 1888, Michaelis Glaser, a German immigrant and cigar roller by trade, opened a small tobacco shop near the center of San Francisco. Michaels' younger brother, Arnold, joined him from Germany in 1890 and it was then the company name became Glaser Bros. Arnold assumed the management of the growing retail store and Michaelis established a wholesale route selling tobacco products to other retailers. Each morning the elder brother loaded his horse-drawn wagon and delivered the orders he had received the previous day. Then in the afternoon he would take more orders from other customers on his route and the next day he repeated the ritual.

Firm policies were set by the brothers for the conduct of their business. An important one was never to deal in inferior goods; always offer the best products. By 1906 the retail and wholesale operations had grown and prospered to the degree a second retail store was opened. The eighteen years of labor had established a bright future for the Glaser Bros. It was destroyed in less than thirty seconds by one devastating San Francisco earthquake.

Blessed with the spirit to win over adversity, the two brothers began to build anew. Within two years they were larger in scope than before and had reduced their debt to nil. As part of the growth plan for the company, they entered the business of distributing candy. Their first line was Suchard Chocolates. They took on other lines and soon candy became a significant adjunct to their tobacco business.

Michaelis Glaser died in 1919, but he lived long enough to see part of his plans for expansion come into being with the opening of the company's first branch sales office and warehouse in Bakersfield. Arnold Glaser took over the complete running of the company and the firm began to branch out both to the north and the south of San Francisco.

Wall Street on the opposite coast crashed in 1929. With it collapsed hundreds of companies, and thousands of individuals went bankrupt. Glaser Bros. weathered the day because its assets were tied up in merchandise and not in the paper of other companies. The company entered 1930 doing 6 million dollars a year and despite the difficulties of the Depression, it ended that decade doing a volume of 11 million dollars annually.

The domestic shortages brought about by Word War II were doubly difficult for Glaser Bros. due to the shortages of tobacco and products made from sugar. Compounded by the shortage of gasoline to deliver their merchandise, the company set in motion a policy of fair pro rata share-out of available goods to their customers and in "zone" deliveries; they never once missed dispatching orders to buyers the day after the order was taken. The company continued to grow all through the war. Arnold Glaser, the last of the brothers, died in 1946 and the management passed to Marcus Glaser, the son of Michaelis. Arnold left the company that had 48 salesmen, 15 branches, about 3,000 customers and annual sales of nearly 38 million dollars. The early post war years saw the distributing company continue a program of expansion and further branches were established in California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Utah and Nevada. Candy distribution from its inception had been an important part of the Glaser Bros. structure. In 1966 the company founded a subsidiary, Cable Car Candies. The company, located in Long Beach, California, started manufacturing various types of confections for distribution by Glaser Bros. Eventually the lines included merchandise from small bagged items through to boxed gourmet chocolates. A milestone was reached in 1970 when the company achieved annual sales of 200 million dollars. The company now had 27 branches and nearly 800 employees.

In 1974 Marcus Glaser sold his majority shareholding to a group headed by David E. Gillespie. Gillespie, with a background in corporate administration and finance along with marketing experience on an international level, brought to the company a spirit to build and develop not unike the founding brothers. The company swiftly moved into an unprecedented era of growth and new design.

Core-Mark

Today, Core-Mark is one of the largest broad-line, full-service marketers and distributors of packaged consumer products in North America. Core-Mark provides distribution and logistics services as well as marketing programs to over 26,000 retail locations across the United States and Canada through its 26 distribution centers. Core-Mark services traditional convenience retailers, grocers, mass merchandisers, drug, liquor and specialty stores, and other stores that carry consumer packaged goods.

Core-Mark combines competitive pricing, on-time deliveries, innovative marketing programs and technology solutions so that our customers can focus on growing their business. Core-Mark is located in South San Francisco.

External links

* Core-Mark website

Categories: Companies listed on NASDAQ | Defunct companies based in Texas