Kokubu & Co. is the shogun of Japan's wholesale food industry. As the largest distributor in the country, it supplies customers with more than 400,000 food items, beverages, and other products. An importer and exporter of foods and alcoholic beverages, Kokubu has warehouses throughout Japan. It owns a majority share of Mitsui & Co.'s grocery and liquor wholesale operations in the Hokkaido region and has a confectionery wholesaling joint venture with Japanese candy company Momose. Kokubu, which also has operations in real estate leasing and breadcrumb manufacturing, is buying an ice cream wholesaler. Founder Kanbei Kokubu started the firm in 1712 as a soy sauce brewery; it is still owned by the Kokubu family.

Diaz Wholesale & Manufacturing, which does business as Diaz Foods, is a leading wholesale distributor of Hispanic food products serving more than 3,500 retail and foodservice customers in about 25 states. Its inventory of 6,000 items includes refrigerated and frozen foods imported from Central and South America and from the Caribbean; Diaz Foods also supplies some Asian ingredients as well. CEO Rene Diaz started the family-owned business in 1980 as an outgrowth of his family's Atlanta grocery chain.

Sigma Pharmaceuticals provides medicines and medical supplies to the UK's pharmacies and hospitals. The company offers a wide product line of pharmaceuticals -- focusing on generic and over-the-counter drugs -- to thousands of UK clients. Other products sold include medical mobility equipment (through its Sigmobility unit) and wound care and surgical supplies. Much of Sigma Pharmaceuticals' business involves parallel importing, in which the company buys generic medications abroad, reprocesses them through subsidiary OPD Laboratories, and repackages them for sale in the UK.

FFF Enterprises really puts the "fff" in pharmaceuticals. The company distributes biopharmaceuticals, plasma products, and vaccines to medical providers, pharmaceutical companies, contract research organizations, and other medical supply distributors. Already a top distributor of intravenous immune globulin, used to bolster weakened immune systems, FFF Enterprises is also a leading US distributor of influenza vaccines and medicines including Roche's Tamiflu, Sanofi Pasteur's Fluzone, and Novartis' Fluvirin. FFF Enterprises supplies more than 80% of the nation's hospitals with biopharmaceuticals.

Owens & Minor, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, distributes medical and surgical supplies, as well as provides supply chain management services in the United States. It offers a product line of medical and surgical supplies to healthcare providers under the MediChoice private label. The company’s supply chain management services include logistics, supplier management, analytics, inventory, outsourced resource management and consulting, and clinical supply management services to manufacturers of medical and surgical products. It also offers PANDAC, an operating room-focused inventory management program that helps healthcare providers to control suture and endo-mechanical inventory; SurgiTrack, a surgical supply service, which includes the assembly and delivery of surgical supplies in procedure-based totes based on a healthcare provider’s surgical schedule; OMSolutions, a supply chain consulting, customer technology, and resource management service offering; WISDOM Gold, an Internet-based supply spend management, data normalization, and contract management solution; CSS, an inventory and contract management service that enables healthcare providers to track and manage physician-preference products and medical/surgical inventories; and OM Healthcare Logistics, which provides third-party logistics and business process outsourcing services. Owens and Minor offers its products and services to acute-care hospitals, the U.S. Department of Defense, and alternate site providers, including ambulatory surgery centers, physicians’ practices, clinics, home healthcare organizations, nursing homes, and rehabilitation facilities. Owens & Minor, Inc. was founded in 1882 and is headquartered in Mechanicsville, Virginia.

Accredo Health is one pharmacy where you won't be able to pick up a bottle of aspirin. As the specialty pharmacy segment of pharmacy benefits manager Medco Health, Accredo dispenses high-tech injectable and infusion drugs for chronic and serious illnesses such as cancer, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), and certain autoimmune disorders. Under contracts with managed care organizations and drugmakers, it delivers drugs and related supplies in temperature-controlled packaging to patient homes or clinics. It also provides consulting and monitoring services to make sure patients are complying with their drug regimens, and it files claims on behalf of patients and doctors.

Topco Associates is a top company in terms of private-label procurement. Topco uses the combined purchasing clout of more than 60 member companies (mostly supermarket operators and foodservice suppliers) nationwide to wring discounts from wholesalers and manufacturers. Topco distributes more than 5,000 private-label items, including fresh meat and produce, dairy and bakery goods, and health and beauty aids, to retail locations throughout the US. Its brands include Food Club, Shurfine, and a line of "Top" labels such as Top Crest and Top Care. In addition to procurement, Topco helps its members contain costs through financial-services programs and other business services.

Eby-Brown Company, LLC is a leading convenience store supplier that distributes more than 16,000 products to some 13,000 retail locations in 30 states, mostly east of the Mississippi. It operates about half a dozen distribution centers that supply such items as beverages, candy and snack foods, frozen and refrigerated foods, tobacco products, and general merchandise. In addition, the company offers advertising and promotion services for its customers. The family-owned Eby-Brown was founded in 1887 by the Wake family.

ALR Technologies Inc. designs, markets, and develops medication compliance reminder devices and compliance monitoring systems primarily in the United States. Its products include ALRT Health-e-Connect System, a health management compliance monitoring system, which allows health care professionals to program compliance reminders for patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and other disease states; and Constant Health Companion, a product that reminds with audio beeping sound and displays actions to take on LCD screen. The company’s products also comprise Home Monitoring System that allows a treatment center and other health care professionals to remotely change patient's reminder timing and/or the actions/doses/medications to take at the time of each reminder serving heart disease patients, organ transplant recipients, cancer patients, severe diabetics, HIV patients, and patients with other chronic diseases. In addition, it offers ALALRT Health-e-Connect System for diabetes monitoring, a communications software platform that enables health professionals to remotely monitor the health progress of diabetic patients; and ALRT Health-e-Connect System for respiratory health management, which enables physicians and caregivers to monitor the use of the nebulizer, the time of day used, and the duration of time used. Further, the company provides vision care and contact lens replacement reminders; reminders for vitamins; nutrition and weight management programs; and reminders for medications for companion animals. Its target market consists of patients with diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, as well as with cystic fibrosis, transplant patients, congestive heart failure, coronary artery disease, and cancer. ALR Technologies Inc. was formerly known as Mo Betta Corp. and changed its name to ALR Technologies Inc. in December 1998. ALR Technologies Inc. was founded in 1987 and is based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Tripifoods Inc.,the convenience store supplier distributes a full line of groceries, tobacco products, frozen and microwavable foods, hot and cold drinks, health and beauty care products, office supplies, motor oil, and other consumer items to stores in 18 Northeastern and Midwestern US states. Tripifoods also offers store operators support services such as merchandising ideas, promotional materials, group insurance, and financing programs. The fourth generation of the Tripi family runs the company, which was founded in 1911.

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