Gordon Food Service of Grand Rapids, Mich., is on track to open its 10th Florida GFS Marketplace store this coming May on Dale Mabry Highway in Tampa's Carrollwood neighborhood.
The new GFS Marketplace store will be the fourth in the Tampa Bay region, joining stores in Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Brandon. A fifth Tampa Bay area store is scheduled to open in Bradenton in September, says Paul Harris, sales and service manager at the Brandon store.
Gordon Food Service, which recently purchased a 1 million-square-foot distribution center in Plant City from Albertson's, was founded in 1897 as a butter-and-egg delivery business. It grew during the 20th century into the largest family owned broad-line foodservice distributor in North America.
GFS Marketplace stores offer the general public Gordon Food Service products in bulk and individual packages. There are more than 130 GFS Marketplace stores nationwide, and plans are in the works to add 50 more stores in the next six years.
"Sales guys go in and develop a certain area and when that area is developed in a certain percetnage they put in a Marketplace store," says Harris. "There are no membership fees. Customers can purchase restaurant-quality products, institutional-grade cleaning products. It's the only concept like it around."
Harris says the Tampa store manager and some assistant managers have been hired, but other positions will be posted soon. Open jobs can be found on the careers page at the Gordon Food Service website.
Writer: Carter Gaddis
Source: Paul Harris, GFS Marketplace
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