Hannaford: We Love Local
March 18, 2023
Hannaford has been serving customers for the past 140 years!
Back in 1883, Arthur Hannaford was selling produce from a one-horse cart along the Portland, Maine, waterfront. He opened his warehouse in 1898 at 164-168 Commercial Street, and called it, simply, Hannaford.
His brothers, Edward and Howard, joined him in 1902 and they incorporated as Hannaford Bros. Co.
The Hannaford brothers’ business was a success, and by 1920 it was a leading produce wholesaler in northern New England. In 1939, Hannaford moved into a new five-story warehouse on Cross Street in Portland.
The Hannaford brothers acquired Tondreau Supermarkets Inc. in 1939 and expanded into the wholesale grocery business.
The business grew steadily over the 1940s and 1950s and by 1960, Hannaford Bros. constructed a 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) distribution center in South Portland, Maine.
In 1966 Hannaford purchased 31 Sampson’s grocery stores and in 1967, they acquired Progressive Distributors. With this expanded retail presence, the company’s earnings topped $1 million by 1971.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Hannaford continued to expand when they opened a chain of Wellby Drug Stores. By 1987 the company had expanded into New York and Massachusetts and its sales reached $1 billion.
In the 1990s Hannaford purchased Wilson’s Supermarkets in North Carolina and thus began its expansion into the Carolinas and Virginia.
In 2000, Delhaize America bought Hannaford.
In 2001, Delhaize bought five Grand Union stores in New York and converted them to Hannaford stores. Continuing to expand, they purchased 19 Victory Supermarkets in Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 2004 and converted them to Hannaford stores.
Hannaford 184 supermarkets are found in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York. The company has more than 26,000 employees. It now offers 6,000 local products from the Northeast and sells 114 Vermont-made brands, including 800 products ranging from meat, produce, dairy, cheese, and coffee to condiments, ice cream, wine, beer, baked goods, and snack foods.
Gloria Sauvé
Communications