Howden Joinery Group Plc makes its kitchen cabinets, doors, and complete kitchens at a pair of factories in the UK. At Howden Joinery, kitchens and joinery hold the keys to the castle. The company in September 2010 renamed itself to reflect its fast-growing Howden Joinery subsidiary (founded in 1995). The firm operates some 450 outlets in the UK and France that cater to the local building trade. Operating under the Howdens banner, the retailer debuted stores in France in 2008 and today operates about a dozen outlets there. Ultimately, Howden Joinery expects the two countries to support at least 600 Howdens locations.

Slumberland has some reclining, bedding, and sofa solutions. Primarily situated in the upper Midwest region of the US, the company operates more than 110 stores in 10 US states. It first opened its doors as a mattress shop and La-Z-Boy specialty shop in 1967, but today Slumberland has extended its reach into furniture for the bedroom, dining room, and living room. The company is a leading retailer of La-Z-Boy upholstery and also sells Natuzzi leather pieces and both Sealy and Simmons mattresses. Franchising has become an increasingly vital part of Slumberland's strategy for expansion.

KF - The Swedish Cooperative Union, is a federation of 47 consumer cooperative societies in Sweden, with over 3 million individual members. KF is the parent company of KF Group where Coop's grocery retail trade constitutes its core business. Coop operates grocery retail shops in chains like Coop Forum, Coop Extra, Coop Konsum and Coop Nära. Together with the retail consumer cooperative societies, Coop accounts for 21.5 percent of the entire Swedish grocery retail sector. The KF Group is also home to a number of companies within different business sectors as well as companies offering internal services. The subsidiaries include, amongst others, KF Fastigheter (real estate business), Akademibokhandeln with its online bookstore Bokus, Norstedts publishing group, PAN Vision Group (distribution of films and digital games), Vi Magazine, KF Invest and Vår Gård Saltsjöbaden (conference facility).

Mid-Am Building Supply is a wholesale distributor of building materials to lumber dealers. We offer products including but not limited to interior and exterior doors, windows, siding, roofing, insulation, fasteners, cabinets, moldings, locks and many other items. We deliver these products to our customers on modern, curtain-side tractor-trailer trucks throughout the week. Currently, nearly 400 people make up the Mid-Am team. These associates are spread throughout our service centers located in Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Illinois. Customers are serviced in a seven state area.

E-Z Mart Stores founder Jim Yates kept his first convenience store in Ashdown, Arkansas, open until 11. The company now boasts 300 outlets across five southern states (Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas). Rather than build its own stores, the company usually expands through acquisitions. In addition to the standard hot dogs, chips, sodas, and cigarettes, most E-Z Mart locations also offer Shell, Conoco, Phillips 66, or CITGO gasoline. Yates died in late 1998 when the plane he was piloting crashed, leaving his daughter Sonja Hubbard at the company's helm as CEO.

The Jean Coutu Group (PJC) is one of Canada's leading drugstore chains with more than 375 franchised outlets in New Brunswick, Ontario, and Quebec under the PJC Jean Coutu, PJC Clinique, PJC Sante, and PJC Sante Beaute banners. The company dominates the Quebec market but trails rivals Shoppers Drug Mart and Katz Group in overall store count. Its Pro-Doc subsidiary (acquired in 2007) makes generic drugs. In mid-2007 the company sold its troubled US arm, the Brooks Eckerd chain of more than 1,850 drugstores, to Rite Aid in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $4 billion. The sale made PJC Rite Aid's largest shareholder with about 28% of the firm's shares.

B&G was founded in 1944 by Charlie Bartle and Cecil Gibson. Bartle & Gibson (B&G) sounds like a classical guitar duet; though it's not, it does bring a certain harmony to the lives of its customers. Catering primarily to residential contractors, B&G is a leading independent wholesaler of plumbing, heating, electrical, and irrigation supplies in Canada. Bartle & Gibson Co. Ltd. operates about 30 branches in British Columbia, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories, offering such major brands as 3M, Bemis, Honeywell, Klein Tools, and OSRAM SYLVANIA. It is served by two distribution centers.

he regional grocery chain also operates about a half a dozen larger Smith's Marketplace stores (154,000 sq. ft. on average) in Utah that combine full-service grocery, pharmacy, and general merchandise departments. Smith's joined the Kroger family when Kroger, the 1 US grocer, bought its parent, Fred Meyer, in 1999.From a small grocery store founded by Ren Smith in Brigham City, Utah, Smith's Food & Drug Centers has grown into a regional powerhouse with supermarkets in Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, and four other western states. Most of its 130-plus stores are conventional supermarkets with in-store pharmacy departments and many offering bakeries, one-hour photo labs, and other services.

Jewson first began operating as a provisions store in 1836. Jewson, a part of the Saint-Gobain Building Distribution division, operates more than 500 branches throughout the UK and is Britain's #2 building materials merchant behind Wolseley UK. Jewson stores supply timber and building materials (bathrooms, doors and windows, drains and foundations, dry lining and insulation, flooring, hardware, ironmongery, landscaping, masonry, painting and decorating, plumbing and heating, roofing, and tools) to mostly small contractors and do-it-yourselfers. About half the company's stores offer tool and equipment rentals, and reservations can also be made online.

QuikTrip provides a quick fix for those on the go. QuikTrip (QT) owns and operates some 535 gasoline/convenience stores in nine states, mostly in the central US. QT stores, which average 4,200 to 5,000 sq. ft., feature the company's own QT brand of gas and diesel fuel, as well as brand-name beverages, candy, and tobacco, and QT's Quik 'n Tasty and HOTZI lines of sandwiches. QT's 15-plus travel centers offer scales, food, fuel, showers, and other services for truckers. The firm's FleetMaster program offers commercial trucking companies detailed reports showing drivers' product purchases, amounts spent, and odometer readings. QT was co-founded in 1958 by chairman Chester Cadieux. His son Chet runs the company.

Inviting Real Estate Agents, Job Placements Agents, Educational Institutes, Software Service Providers, Real Estate Builders, Marriage Bureaus, Travel Agents, Restaurant Owners, Health & Fitness Centers and other Local Businesses to Post a FREE Classified Advertisement on Cootera.com Classifieds Website.