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Private company

Gordon Food Service

Logo: Gordon Food Service, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

American catering company

Gordon Food Service (GFS) is a foodservice distributor based in Wyoming, Michigan serving the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest regions of the United States and coast-to-coast in Canada. It also operates stores in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, and Wisconsin. According to Forbes, GFS is the 15th-largest privately held company in the United States.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1897Founded1

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Gordon Food Service Headquarters
Photo: WMrapids, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons5

Gordon Food Service (GFS) is a foodservice distributor based in Wyoming, Michigan serving the Midwest, Northeast, Southeast, and Southwest regions of the United States and coast-to-coast in Canada. It also operates stores in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Alabama, and Wisconsin.2

Corporate structure

Gordon Food Service sits at the top of its group. 2 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

  • Gordon Food Service Wyoming
    • Gordon Food Service Store Subsidiary · United States

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What Gordon Food Service reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

  • Gordon Food Service Store

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

In 1897, Isaac Van Westenbrugge, a 23-year-old Dutch immigrant, started a butter-and-egg delivery service using a horse-drawn cart and $300 borrowed from his brother. In 1916, Ben Gordon joined the company and later married Van Westenbrugge's daughter, Ruth. In 1942, Ben and his brother Frank renamed the company Gordon Food Service. Since then, Gordon Food Service has grown to become the largest privately held and family-managed foodservice distributor in North America. Gordon Food Service serves a wide variety of foodservice companies across industries, ranging from restaurants, to healthcare, education, and more.

GFS purchased the Market Day school fundraising company in 2013 before shutting it down two years later.

In early March 2024, Gordon Food Service along with Florida Blue Foundation, and AdventHealth became partners and founding members of the Culinary Health Institute; which was being built on the 4 Roots Farm Campus in Orlando, Florida, by John Rivers' founder of 4 Rivers Smokehouse.

From Wikipedia’s article on Gordon Food Service, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

Gordon Food Service opened its first cash and carry store in 1979. These stores were renamed GFS Marketplace in 1992 and rebranded to Gordon Food Service Store in 2014. As of 2025, GFS operates more than 175 stores across Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin. The company began renovating many stores in 2019.

From Wikipedia’s article on Gordon Food Service, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Also owns

  • Gordon Food Service Store

From Wikidata.1

Acquisitions

  1. 2013Market Day became a subsidiary1

Timeline

  1. 1897Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

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