Sexton Foods
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| Public | |
| Industry | Food distribution |
| Fate |
Merged with Beatrice Foods in 1968, bought by S.E. Rykoff in 1983, in 1994, Rykoff-Sexton purchased US Foodservice. In 1997, JP Foodservice merged with Rykoff-Sexton-US Foodservice Company in a stock and debt assumption transaction. Operates today as US Foodservice. |
| Founded | 1883 |
| Headquarters | Chicago, Illinois |
| Products | Food, wholesale groceries, food service, restaurant equipment |
John Sexton & Company, also known as Sexton Quality Foods, was a broad line national wholesale grocer that serviced the restaurant, hotel and institutional trade from regional warehouses and truck fleets located in major metropolitan areas of the United States. Sexton Quality Foods eventually became US Foodservice in 1997. The company was established in Chicago, Illinois in 1883 by John Sexton.
John Peter Sexton was born June 29, 1858 in Dundas, Ontario, Canada to Michael and Ellen (Connors) Sexton. (Michael and Ellen had emigrated from County Clare, Ireland and married in Dundas on May 11, 1854 with Cornelius Sexton and Elizabeth Connors witnesses.)
John Sexton worked in a general store in Niagara, Ontario 1874–1877. He immigrated to Chicago in 1877 at 18 and began working for various wholesale grocers in Chicago as a clerk and city salesman. During this time, he realized that there was an opportunity to specialize in selling quality teas, coffees and spices.
John Sexton married Anna Louise Bartleman (born May 22, 1866 Chicago IL ) on August 11, 1886 in Chicago, IL. (Anna Louise's parents, Christian and Theresa (Albrecht) Bartleman had emigrated from Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Germany in the mid-1850s.) The couple had five children: Thomas George (born February 21, 1889 Chicago IL), Franklin (born 2/16/1891), Sherman J. (born 9/12/1892), Helen (Egan) (b.?) and Ethel (Marten) (born 1896). The family home was at 2238 North Dayton Street in Chicago. All three sons and both sons-in-law worked for the company in various roles.
In 1883, at the age of 25, John Sexton invested his entire life savings of $400 and formed a corporation with George A. Hitchcock, the Hitchcock & Sexton Company, which opened a small office at 5 Wabash in downtown Chicago. Within a year, Hitchcock & Sexton moved to 20 State Street (at State and Lake) which was owned by John DeKoven.
As business increased, Hitchcock & Sexton opened three more retail stores in the Chicago area, including one in Joliet. This made Hitchcock & Sexton one of the first retail coffee and tea chain proprietors in the United States. In 1886, Hitchcock sold Sexton his interest in the business and renamed the company John Sexton & Co. To help run the business, John Sexton recruited his sisters Mary (Barton); Sarah (O'Leary); Brigid "Bea" (Mulligan), who later married widower Francis Upton; and his younger brother James J. Sexton to move to Chicago from Dundas, Ontario. The sisters each ran one of his retail stores and lived above it with their families. In addition to family, John Sexton relied on recruiting high-quality employees by offering attractive wages, sales commissions and fair dealing.
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