C&A targets budget-conscious shoppers from Sao Paulo to Shanghai and all points in between. The company sells moderately priced apparel for men, women, and children through more than 1,600 stores in Brazil, Mexico, China, and about 20 European countries (where the majority of its network is concentrated), as well as online. Its portfolio of a dozen in-house brands include Clockhouse, Westbury, and Your Sixth Sense. The Brenninkmeijer family owns the company through Switzerland-based COFRA Holding. Brenninkmeijer men hold nearly all the top positions within the business, which traces its roots back to 1841, when the brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer opened a textile warehouse in the Netherlands.

Walter Alexander, the company's president, is a grandson of the founder, John Alexander, who ran Alexander Lumber until his death in 1944. Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Alexander Lumber can tell you about 100 years of selling wood. More than a century, in fact. The family-owned company was established in 1891. Alexander Lumber conducts wholesale and retail sales of tree products from about 25 retail lumberyards in Illinois and Wisconsin. Alexander Lumber's manufacturing division, Cortland Components, designs and builds wooden trusses and joists for construction at a plant in Cortland, Illinois.

Replacements, Ltd. offers new and previously owned china, crystal, flatware, and collectibles from its facilities spanning more than 400,000 sq. ft. Its inventory consists of some 13 million pieces in more than 300,000 patterns. In addition to its bridal and gift registry, Replacements' website features a dinnerware knowledge base, place-setting guides, pattern identification tools, and showroom tour. Customers can place their orders by mail, phone, fax, e-mail, and online. The company was founded by president and CEO Bob Page in 1981.

HOM Furniture, Inc is a middle-market to high-end home furnishings retailer operating more than a dozen stores in Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Wisconsin. HOM stores offer wooden (cherry, maple, oak, pine), upholstered (including leather), and patio furniture, as well as mattresses, area rugs, and other decorative accessories. Many locations also provide free design consultations to assist customers with buying decisions. In addition to its namesake chain, HOM operates Gabberts Design Studio & Fine Furnishings, based in Edina, Minnesota. HOM's retailing roots reach back to 1973, when CEO Wayne Johansen established JC Imports, the chain's forerunner.

W. Atlee Burpee is a top-seeded seed supplier. Shipping more than 100 million packets a year, W. Atlee Burpee and Co. is the largest supplier of seeds to home gardeners in the US. Burpee cultivates and distributes fruit, flower, herb, and vegetable seeds and plants through retail partners, catalogs (about 2 million mailed each year), and online via its website. The company also sells gardening tools and accessories. Named after its founder, Burpee got its start in 1876 as a mail-order seed company. The family of third-generation seedsman and CEO George Ball Jr. has owned the business since 1991. Ball also owns a rare plant nursery and a gourmet seed firm.

Allied Building Products Corp. was founded in 1950 as a family-operated roofing and custom sheet metal fabrication business. Allied Building Products counts home builders and contractors as part of its circle of friends. Serving the commercial and residential construction markets, the company distributes exterior and interior building materials, including roofing, siding, drywall, and acoustical tile, from major manufacturers. Allied also markets products under its own Cutting Edge and Tri-Bilt brands. The firm operates about 180 branches in 30 states, and it maintains a fleet of more than 2,700 vehicles, including cranes and delivery trucks. Allied is a subsidiary of Oldcastle (itself a subsidiary of CRH).

LAWSON aims to be the "hot station" in the neighborhood for on-the-go Japanese. Japan's #2 convenience store chain (behind Seven-Eleven Japan), LAWSON operates more than 9,800 outlets throughout Japan and in Shanghai, China. Its stores offer original products including main dishes, prepared noodles, bakery and deli items, and rice balls. (Food and groceries account for about 85% of sales.) Subsidiary Lawson Ticket sells concert, sports, and other events tickets in LAWSON and Daiei stores. Lawson ATM dispenses cash to shoppers in about 6,000 LAWSON shops. Subsidiary Ninety-nine Plus sells perishable foods. Founded in 1975 as Daiei Lawson Co., the chain was spun off by financially troubled Daiei in 2000.

Spahn & Rose Lumber Co. is a retail lumber company with about 25 locations throughout Iowa and, to a lesser extent, in Illinois and Wisconsin. The company, which was organized in 1904, produces roof and floor truss systems and sells a variety of building supply products from such suppliers as Andersen (windows), Georgia-Pacific (lumber), CertainTeed (building materials), DuPont (plastics and flooring), MidContinent Cabinetry, (cabinets), Stanley Black & Decker (hand tools) and more. Spahn & Rose is promoting a range of green products, including recycled goods, solar reflective windows, and arsenic-free lumber.

In response, Albert Heijn has undergone an image makeover; from the most expensive supermarket in Holland to a price-competitive supermarket chain. There's nothing small time about Albert Heijn, who began selling groceries in the 1880s and whose namesake chain is now the #1 food retailer in the Netherlands. With more than 820 company-owned and franchised supermarkets and AH to Go convenience stores throughout the tiny country, the Albert Heijn chain is the flagship banner of Royal Ahold, contributing more than a third of its parent's sales. The grocery chain has a 22% share of the local market, but is losing ground to competitors, including hard discounter ALDI of Germany and region rivals Laurus N.V. and Edah.

The Katz Group is one of Canada's leading drug store operators with over 1,800 drug stores across the country. In addition to its retail operations, the Katz Group owns and operates Canada's only national mail order pharmacy business, Rexall Direct (formerly known as Meditrust Pharmacy Inc.), one of Canada's largest institutional pharmacy operations.

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