Convenience Distributors AMCON & Team Sledd Join Forces

OMAHA, Neb. — AMCON Distributing Co. is making a strategic investment in Team Sledd, bringing together two key distributors in the convenience channel.

Based in Wheeling, W. Va., Team Sledd has annual revenues of approximately $600 million and serves the West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, Kentucky and Maryland markets.

Robert Sincavich and Randy Emanuelson, co-owners of Team Sledd, will retain a majority interest in the company and continue in their roles as president and vice president, respectively. Team Sledd employees will continue in their current capacities.

"We are delighted to support Rob and Randy with this investment to provide growth capital for the Team Sledd enterprise," said Christopher H. Atayan, AMCON's chairman and CEO. "This strategic investment is designed to benefit both Team Sledd and AMCON customers."

Team Sledd was founded in 1937 and currently serves approximately 1,200 convenience store retailers in seven Mid-Atlantic states. It operates out of a 200,000-square-foot warehouse in Wheeling. AMCON currently serves approximately 4,100 convenience retailers in 26 states out of six warehouses in the Midwest and Mid-South.

"In this era of consolidation, Team Sledd felt it was important to partner with a respected industry supplier that has the geographic and economic scale to broaden our collective reach and capabilities. This partnership helps us create the pre-eminent convenience distributor in both the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States," Sincavich said.

He added AMCON brings a customer-centric business model, hands-on customer service and support, and a commitment to innovative foodservice growth.

"This partnership was designed with our customers' needs in mind. We will maintain our operations as they presently are with the added benefit of enhanced products, flexibility, innovation, and services that this partnership brings to our customers," Emanuelson said.

"Ultimately, both Team Sledd and AMCON will be in a stronger position to serve both independent and chain retailers over a larger geographic footprint and enhance opportunities to grow our collective customer base," he added.

Omaha-based AMCON is a wholesale distributor of consumer products, including beverages, candy, tobacco, groceries, foodservice, frozen and chilled foods, and health and beauty care products with locations in Illinois, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Tennessee.

It also operates 22 health and natural product retail stores in the Midwest and Florida. The retail stores operate under the names Akin's Natural in its Midwest market, and Chamberlin's Natural Foods and Earth Origins Market in its Florida market.

"Team Sledd is on the forefront of innovative retail branding and marketing concepts, particularly with respect to its store layout and design services and customer education programs. These programs are showcased out of a state-of-the-art 5,000-square-foot Convenience Learning Center which we consider gold standard and are particularly attractive as we look to leverage these resources across our entire distribution network," said Andrew C. Plummer, president of AMCON.

"We look forward to the new opportunities this relationship creates, and we are confident that this synergistic approach will prove desirable to other growth-minded wholesalers across the United States," he added.