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Aug 31, 2012 · Brown left Food Town in 1964, and the small chain limped toward an uncertain future. • • • A change of luck. The company’s fortunes famously turned in 1968 when Ralph Ketner gambled on a low-price business strategy that transformed Food Town — which became Food Lion in 1983 — into the fastest-growing grocery chain in the country ...
Delhaize "Le Lion" signed an agreement to vote with Chairman Ralph Ketner for ten years on all policy issues. The company's growth accelerated dramatically in the late 1970s and the 1980s. Food Town opened stores in Virginia in 1978 and in Georgia in 1981. In 1977 the chain operated 55 stores; by 1987, it ran 475.
Jul 15, 2024 · With many years of experience in the food business, Ralph W. Ketner, Brown Ketner, and Wilson Smith put up capital of $62,500 and convinced many Rowan County residents to buy stock so they could open Food Town #1 in Salisbury. During the first decade, the company experienced moderate growth: seven stores and $5 million in sales in 1967.
I did a sales route through rural NC one time and talked to department managers (who had been there for years) who would tell me about Mr. and Mrs. Ketner visiting the store with cake on the employees birthdays long after they had sold the company. edit and they knew many of the long time employees by their first name.
Son of George Robert (Bob) Ketner and Effie Yost Ketner, Ralph W. Ketner was born on September 20, 1920 in Rimertown in Rowan County. In 1923, the Ketner family moved to Salisbury, North Carolina, where Ralph Ketner’s father, formerly a farmer, started a butcher shop and provided his six children an example of entrepreneurship and innovation ...
Food Lion was founded in 1957 in Salisbury, North Carolina, as Food Town by Wilson Smith, Ralph Ketner, and Brown Ketner. The Food Town chain was acquired by the Belgium-based Delhaize Group grocery company in 1974. [7] Due to Ralph Ketner's savvy business sense and ever-growing grocery store endeavors, initial investors of Ketner's 'Food-Town ...
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“We’d rather make five fast pennies than one slow nickel,” Ralph W. Ketner said when I interviewed him in 2006. 2007 marked the 50th anniversary of Food Lion, and Ralph W. Ketner, one of three co-founders of Food Town (later renamed Food Lion), is a North Carolina example displaying how entrepreneurial creativity combined with hard work and a willingness to take risks can produce ...
