Merchants Distributors, LLC
Ralph Thompson has extensive experience in the food distribution sector, particularly in meat and seafood categories. Currently serving as Category Manager for Meat Sales at Merchants Distributors, LLC since November 2019, Ralph previously worked as a Pork Buyer/Merchandiser at MDI Merchants Distributors from November 2015 to November 2019 and held various roles at Southeastern Grocers, including Merchandising Director for Meat/Seafood. Ralph's career at BI-LO Holdings included positions such as Category Manager for Fresh Beef/Pork and Fresh Meat, Divisional Meat and Seafood Sales Manager overseeing a team with annual sales of $415M, and Category Manager of Meat and Seafood, managing substantial sales budgets. Ralph began at BI-LO LLC as a Buyer Merchandiser and holds an Associate degree in Business Science from Southern Wesleyan University.
Merchants Distributors, LLC
Merchants Distributors (MDI) is a privately-owned wholesale grocery store distributor headquartered in Hickory, NC. MDI supplies over 600 retail food stores with food and non-food items in NC, SC, GA, TN, VA, AL, WV, OH, FL, PA, MD, and KY. MDI celebrated its 85th anniversary on September 21, 2016. MDI's 85 year history is an interesting story of sacrifice, growth and success. It began as a small family business in the small town of Hickory, North Carolina, and as one local newspaper described it, "With little more than a bag of peanuts, an apple, and a stick of candy." What Lebanese immigrant Moses George and his sons purchased in 1931 for $17,000 has since grown to become a multimillion-dollar wholesale grocery company. Merchants Distributors is a great American success story but it is a company that has never forgotten its roots. Its success is based on: - Its values, its facilities, its variety, its Advertising programs, its cost of goods, and its innovations - The one thing that distinguishes MDI as superior to other distribution companies - leadership. MDI's owners have created a leadership style that supports the organization as one family working together for one common goal and a culture in its people that is impossible to duplicate.