Alex Lee history

1935 Merchants Produce moves into its second warehouse in downtown Hickory.

By 1938, they had expanded to supply area grocery stores with all the goods they needed to operate.

1940 Merchants Produce builds a 20,000 square foot warehouse in Hickory.

When Lucius's son Jim returned from military service in 1946, he joined with his sister's husband, Carl Buchan, to run the business, and Lowe's expanded into groceries, dry goods, notions, and other products.

By the time of his premature death in 1947 he had hired six of the seven men who would lead MDI's explosive growth in the coming years.

1954 The first Lowes grocery store opens in North Wilkesboro, NC.

Asked in 1960 to account for MDI's success, Alex George enthused to the Hickory Daily Record that "our ability to get good men is the secret to the growth of MDI. Take a look at these men.

On January 2, 1966, IFH was officially born with Lee George as president and Norman James as vice-president.

1973 IFH moves into 50,000 square foot facility.

Norman James was vice president; after his death, the Lee brothers bought his share of the company and made IFH a subsidiary of MDI. Lee George retired in 1980 but remained chairman.

IFH also continued to expand with entry into South Carolina with the purchase of Brothers Foods of Dillion, South Carolina in 1982.

A new 90,000 square foot facility opens in Florence, SC to replace the Dillon, SC distribution center that was destroyed by fire in 1986.

The new site opened in January 1988 and, because of its proximity to Interstate 95, IFH now had ready access to the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, market as well as direct access to potential customers in Georgia and Florida.

Lowes Foods continued their store growth by adding 19 more stores by 1989.

1991: IFH purchases 80 percent of the Western Steer Family Restaurant chain.

They also introduced a new concept, FreshSmart, in 1994 that emphasized full selection of quality fresh foods, upscale customer service, and faster checkout.

While Carl Buchan focused on developing Lowes Hardware into the Lowe's Companies, Inc. home improvement super chain that by 1995 would number 350 stores, Faw focused on the expansion of his part of Lucius Lowe's legacy.

In August 1996, Alex Lee floated a $60 million investors' issue to pay for the expansion.

In an effort to dramatically boost that number, Alex Lee acquired Byrd Food Stores, a 43-store chain based in North Carolina, in 1997.

Also in 1998, Alex Lee started a new storage and distribution business called Consolidation Services which supplies an array of warehousing and distribution services.

Alex Lee Inc. ranked 101 among the top 500 private firms in the United States in 1999 with operations in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

2000: Curtis Oldenkamp is named president of Lowes after Urquhart resigns.

The second, Institution Food House (IFH), also a wholesale food distributor, was rated the 21st largest United States food "broadliner" (distributors with the widest range of goods) in 2001.

In keeping with our entrepreneurial spirit, IFH entered into a new venture in 2003 called IFH ChefSmart, a new retail concept.

2006 IFH builds new distribution center in Florence, SC.

In 2007, the first Lowes Foods Fuel station was opened.

2011 Lowes Foods introduces the Just$ave value format.

In 2012, Alex Lee, Inc. sold IFH to Performance Food Group turning its focus to the retail and wholesale distribution businesses.

In 2013, Lowes Foods re-opened the first store to offer the newly developed concepts in Clemmons, North Carolina.

2015 Lowes Foods continues to innovate introducing new concepts and an improved and updated Lowes Foods to Go service.

2016 Alex Lee introduces a new logo.

In 2017, Alex Lee acquired Souto Foods, LLC located in Atlanta, Georgia.

Alex Lee Inc. announced on October 28, 2019, that it had completed its purchase of Scranton, South Carolina-based W. Lee Flowers & Co., a wholesale distributor which supplies 75 IGA and KJ's Market stores, 50 of which the company owned.