Penn Line history

1945 At the start of the post-war industrial boom, Robert S. Reese, known fondly as “Pappy,” becomes a partner in the young company, bringing tree trimming and right-of-way clearing to the business mix.

1946 With chainsaws still too “newfangled” and pricey to be in wide use, crews trim trees and clear overgrown brush using cross cut saws, bucksaws and axes.

By fiscal 1949 net sales had reached $9 million and net income $544,283.

1953 Penn Line Service is incorporated in Pennsylvania, and holds its first annual meeting of shareholders on December 4, 1953.

1956 Penn Line rides a wave of construction created by the post-war Federal Aid Highway Act which authorizes the creation of some 41,000 miles of highways across America.

Penn Line was giving consideration to slot cars at least as early as 1960.

Bob was able to sign A. J. Foyt within months of the 1961 victory.

In 1962, however, Penn Traffic acquired Supervalue Corp.--operators of the ten-store Riverside Markets supermarket chain based in Du Bois, Pennsylvania--for about $2.4 million worth of stock.

Penn Line went bankrupt and closed in 1963.

In 1968 Penn Traffic acquired the Johnstown Sanitary Dairy and, the following year, the Cresson, Pennsylvania-based Penn Cress Ice Cream.

The central warehouse at Du Bois was enlarged to 182,000 square feet in 1969.

Supermarkets accounted for 64 percent of sales in 1970, department stores for 23 percent, and the dairy for about 11 percent.

By late 1971 Penn Traffic was well on its way toward its ninth year in a row of higher sales and earnings.

A $3.5-million project was expected to double capacity by mid-1972 at the dairy, which was producing orange juice and a number of other fruit drinks in addition to milk and milk products.

In 1979 Penn Traffic acquired Quality Markets, Inc., a chain of 21 supermarkets based in Jamestown, New York, for about $4.5 million.

Net sales in fiscal 1980 reached $375.6 million, and net income nearly $6.5 million.

Penn Traffic left the department-store business in 1982, when it sold its six department stores and two women's specialty-store leases to Crown America Corp., owners of Hess Department Stores, for about $7.3 million in cash and properties.

In fiscal 1983 Penn Traffic opened 17 stores, including 13 acquired from A & P's old Altoona division.

However, three unprofitable Youngstown, Ohio, supermarkets were shut down in June 1984; shortly afterwards the company's management acknowledged that profitability had declined during the last six months, a development blamed on high labor costs.

By May 1985, Penn Traffic was operating four superstores and had three more in the planning stages in competition with lower-cost operators and depot stores.

Miller, Tabak, Hirsch & Co., a New York City investment group, began a takeover bid for Penn Traffic in 1986, raising its ownership in the company to 7.2 percent of the common stock by midyear.

Its wholesale food-distribution business, the sixth largest in the United States in 1990, served 133 licensed franchises and 119 independent operators.

The operations of Olde Towne Electric of Manassas, Virginia, another contractor acquired in 1992, are later wrapped up into Tri-County.

In 1993 P & C was supplying bakery products to Grand Union, which supplied commissary products to P & C, one of a few joint buying activities.

By July 1994 long-term debt had climbed to more than $1.1 billion.

2015 Penn Line acquires D. W. Miller, Inc., a pavement marker contractor located in Huntingdon Co., Pennsylvania.