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Commentary
From Our President
I am truly thrilled that the Massachusetts Food Association (MFA) will be inducting my Dad, Frank Sleeper, into the Hall of Fame. Of course, I may be biased, but MFA has made an excellent choice along with John Donelan, FR. Francis Murphy and Tom Stemberg. The award, to be presented on September 13th, acknowledges our founder for his pioneering work in establishing health and beauty care in supermarkets. HBC has become a multi-billion dollar business and a launching pad for in-store prescription departments, which is a huge business in itself. Dad’s pioneering started 70 years ago, from extraordinarily humble beginnings. He was a wagon jobber, without much of a warehouse, selling new accounts and servicing existing ones by carrying his entire inventory of items in his truck. Order-picking was done sitting on a piano stool as he swiveled around and pulled merchandise from various cartons before lugging the orders into the stores. Invoicing, of course, was hand billed and each of his early 2-foot HBC departments, generated about $50.00 a week in sales. Over the years he worked his way up to be the owner of a good-sized company that kept growing well after his retirement in 1972. His values were straight forward. He founded Imperial to help independent grocery stores succeed in selling non-food products. He had 5 guiding principles for the company: 1) grow new customers, 2) maintain & improve each non-food category in every store, 3) assure profitability by managing his expenses, 4) provide his small staff with the means to be successful and 5) achieve competitive salaries and benefits. Without expressing it specifically, he, too, was striving to be “The Performance Leader”. Today Imperial is much larger and a more complex business, but we have inherited wonderful qualities, which are deeply rooted in our culture. These qualities set us apart and are the core of who we are. So as we honor our founder and non-foods pioneer, who gave so much to our company and our industry, it is with pride and humility that I say, “Thank you, Dad, for all you have done. Imperial Distributors, Inc. would not be here without you.” For comments or questions, contact us by phone at 508-756-5156, or e-mail: msleeper@imperialdistributors.com
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Accolades for a Non-Foods Pioneer