SAN ANTONIO, TX (Sept. 1) The San Antonio Business Journal reported yesterday that Labatt Food Service has acquired Albuquerque, New Mexico-based broadliner Zanios Foods. Both companies are ID Top 50 distributors, with Labatt this year ranking No. 8 ($810 million in ’08 sales) and Zanios at No. 30 ($212 million in ’08 sales). Both are members of UniPro Foodservice.
San Antonio-based Labatt has reportedly also set up a new subsidiary company that will operate under the Zanios Food name. The company did not disclose terms of the deal.
Zanios has been a family-owned foodservice company since its founding as Southwest Egg Co. in 1956. It currently is led by second-generation owner Jim Zanios. It has one distribution center, 44 DSRs and more than 3,000 active accounts, most of which are commercial street accounts. Citing the effects of the economy, Zanios earlier this year closed a second satellite distribution center in El Paso, Texas, which it had opened in 2007.
The new Zanios Foods operation will continue to operate from the company’s 205,000-square-foot Albuquerque distribution center, delivering to customers in New Mexico as well as parts of Texas and Colorado. The Zanios family will serve in management at the new subsidiary company, with Jim Zanios reporting to Blair Labatt Jr., president of Labatt Food Service.
"I have known Blair Labatt and the Labatt company for close to 30 years," Jim Zanios said in the report. "We are really pleased to be part of their company."
Labatt expects its sales to approach $1 billion annually with the purchase of Zanios Foods. Labatt has been a privately held foodservice company since 1910. In addition to San Antonio, it operates distribution centers in Dallas, Houston and Lubbock. Texas.
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