SGA HISTORY
Services Group of America (“SGA”) is a privately owned, diversified investment company with over 50 years of experience in buying and building industry leading companies and real estate investing. Our view toward investment strategy is formed by our experience over four decades operating our family owned portfolio of integrated food companies covering broadline and systems distribution, protein manufacturing, produce brokerage, and freight logistics.
We transformed these enterprises into industry leaders through the relentless pursuit of two key components; understanding our Customer better than anyone else to provide them unmatched service and creating a Culture that allows our Associates to thrive and create value.
By bringing together the very best people, providing them the required resources along with a free thinking operating platform, we created unparalleled and enduring value in the food sector through our ownership of Food Services of America (“FSA”), Systems Services of America (“SSA”), Amerifresh, Ameristar and GAMPAC, (collectively “The Food Group”).
In 2010, with the passing of SGA’s founder Thomas J. Stewart, his son, Slade, took over the business and its Associates, as his father had planned. Slade’s career path, including hands-on experience at the core of enterprise operations, has given him the institutional knowledge and the experience needed to further the vision of the company. To date, Slade’s executive experience has encompassed senior leadership positions as Executive Vice President FSA, President of Amerifresh, President of GAMPAC and currently Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of SGA.
Since 2010, Slade and his team have continued the company’s successful record of creating value through the setting and execution of its strategic vision. SGA doubled its real estate investment portfolio in the state of Arizona and greatly expanded the service capability of the Food Group. Under Slade’s leadership, SGA created an industry leading foodservice e-commerce platform, a transformational multi-channel customer service model, and deployed science based pricing technology.
Rewarded by the Food Group’s customers for its high level of service and customer centric approach, Slade continued to invest in the growth and infrastructure of the Food Group through projects including:
- Food Services of America’s acquisition of Yancey’s Food Service of Loveland, Colorado in 2012. The acquisition increased FSA’s coverage over Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, expanding the SGA Food Group’s distribution opportunities for regional and national customers throughout the entire western U.S.
- SSA Phoenix built a new distribution center in 2012. The new distribution center doubled the warehouse volume as well as provided a more efficient layout allowing the stocking of more items and categories for customers.
- In 2013, Amerifresh opened its McAllen, Texas, location providing a major access point to the important Mexico agricultural market, giving Midwestern and Eastern customers an additional source of timely, fresh produce during the growing season.
- SSA Southern California doubled its capacity in a 2013 move to a new facility in Fontana, strategically situated near the region’s largest east-west artery allowing for easier, more cost effective delivery to all of southern California and southern Nevada.
- GAMPAC opened a new Indianapolis office in 2015 to provide better, real-time transportation services for customers in the Eastern and Midwest time zones.
- A major expansion of the FSA Fargo distribution center was completed in 2016. The expansion, required by Fargo’s strong growth, eliminated the need for expensive cross docking while further increasing the facility’s ability to provide customers better selection of products, positioning FSA as the premier distribution facility in the region.
- In 2018, SSA Northern California completed an expanded, all new, state-of-the-art distribution center in Tracy, Calif. The new location lowered transportation costs, increased access to skilled labor, and nearly doubled capacity.
- Slade and his senior leadership at SGA are constantly looking towards the future and how best to position SGA and its portfolio of investments. This persistent evaluation led to Slade’s decision to evaluate strategic opportunities for the Food Group. Ultimately SGA took the five Food Group Companies to market to find the right buyer, one that would value the companies the way Slade and his team valued them, which ultimately led to the announcement of a transaction with U.S. Foods on July 28th of 2018.
On Sept. 13, 2019, SGA announced the close of the sale of its food-related subsidiaries to US Foods (NYSE: USFD). US Foods, the second-largest foodservice distributor in the nation, acquired five SGA subsidiaries:
- Food Services of America;
- Systems Services of America;
- Amerifresh;
- Ameristar Meats; and
- GAMPAC.
Today, SGA continues to be a privately-held investment company with a diverse portfolio of assets, including Development Services of America (DSA), SGA’s core real estate subsidiary responsible for developing and managing a wide range of commercial properties in the U.S.
For the early history of SGA and the legacy that Thomas J Stewart built