Acosta history

Dallas grew up on a Mississippi farm, and then worked his way through Mississippi State University, where he received a marketing degree in 1953.

In 1956, Lou Acosta persuaded Robert H. (Hy) Albritton, owner, president, and CEO of Common & Co.

Robert (Hy) Albritton, who owned Common, became president and CEO of Acosta when Lou Acosta retired in 1959.

He then took a management position at a P&G subsidiary, the Clorox Company, before moving to Jacksonville in 1966 to become a partner at Acosta.

Celia and Richard married in 1968; they have 5 children and 14 grandchildren.

By the end of 1974, Acosta had grown from 11 employees to 27.

1977 Acosta opens an office in Birmingham, Alabama.

In 1981, the Miami office was opened, and Acosta began serving the whole state of Florida.

A New Hampshire native, Chartrand was a veteran of The Carnation Company when Dallas recruited him for Acosta in 1983.

He began his career in the CPG industry in 1987 as a Territory Sales Manager at Procter & Gamble.

Acosta began doing business in the Carolinas in 1989, effectively covering the southeast United States Thereafter, the company expanded westward into Louisiana and began operations in Tennessee and Virginia.

In 1992, the top five chains accounted for less than 20% of all grocery sales, but as mass retailers like Walmart began to sell groceries, the dynamics in the industry changed.

1993 Gary Chartrand becomes president of Acosta.

1996 Chartrand is named Acosta's CEO.

The first in a series of steps to Acosta's becoming a national player was the merger in July 1998 with PMI-Eisenhart, serving the Midwest.

The new business failed to perform as hoped, and the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May 2001.

Prior to joining Davidson Kempner in 2002, he was an associate in the restructuring group of Lazard Freres & Co.

To this end, in July 2003 Acosta acquired The Vaughn Group, a fresh foods sales and marketing agency serving the Texas market.

In June 2004, Acosta looked to the West Coast, acquiring Infinity Food Marketing and Carman & Associates, two major meat and seafood sales and marketing agencies serving northern California.

In 2005 Chartrand told Supermarket News that the emphasis on fresh foods was "paying huge dividends.

Prior to joining Oaktree in 2007, Mr.

He joined Elliott in 2009, focusing primarily upon public equity and credit opportunities.

He is a graduate of Leadership Jacksonville, Class of 2012 and a past member of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors.

Prior to co-founding Nexus in 2013, Cohen spent 13 years at Apollo Global Management in its private equity group.

In 2014, Acosta acquired Anderson Daymon Worldwide.

Todd Johnson joined Acosta in 2015 as Chief Legal Officer serving as the principal legal counsel for the company.

He joined Elliott in 2016, focusing primarily on equity and credit opportunities.

Camporin has been a member of the board of directors of Affinion Group, Inc. and Affinion Group Holdings, Inc. since July 20, 2017.

In December 2019, Acosta filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and creditors took over the company.

John Carroll joined Acosta in 2020 as Chief Growth Officer.

Marie Hanson joined Acosta in 2021 as Chief Sales Officer.