Choice Food Distributors, LLC Gibson Food Products

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The History of Gibson Food Products.

For a young man who had no intentions of being in the food business, Charles “Butch” Gibson's career path led him to spending over 38 years in the wholesale food distribution business. He built a successful food distribution business over a 30-year period that was acquired by Choice Food Group in March 2006.

In 1975, Mr. Gibson started his working career for the Associated Press & The Tennessean while going to school to become an attorney. Needing more money to continue his education, he took a job driving a delivery truck for a local company called Red Hat Poultry. The company grew into what is today called ConAgra, now one of the largest food companies in the world.

Mr. Gibson had great intentions to continue his college education, “but every time I would tell my supervisor that I was planning to leave, they would offer me a better job," he said. He kept moving up the corporate ladder from supervisor, to assistant manager to manager. At 27, he became manager of branch operations for four branches when Red Hat changed their company name to ConAgra. 

He continued with ConAgra for 12 years. During that time, he launched a private label, pre-packing poultry program for H. G. Hill’s grocery story in the late 1970s. Offering pre-packed poultry was a bold move for H.G. Hills during a time when consumers were used to having meat sold over the counter. However, the poultry industry was evolving toward this change.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Gibson decided to go into business for himself and found a buy-out opportunity with Maury Poultry & Egg in Columbia, Tenn. He purchased shares of ownership with the company from owner Glenn Stevenson of Stevenson Ham Company. The partner of the business was Jim Fesmire, owner of Nashville Egg, which years later was bought by Choice Food Distributors.

Mr. Gibson and Mr. Fesmire were a team and as they put it, “ahead of their time,” offering deboned chicken breasts (further processing). ConAgra didn’t see merit in allocating production time to further processing of poulty, so they utilized contractors to expedite that process. It was Mr. Gibson who retained that account because of his previous employment relationship with them. “We bought the chicken from ConAgra’s plant, deboned it, then resold it back to ConAgra,” said Mr. Gibson.

In 1983, Mr. Gibson acquired Whitt’s BBQ’s chain of restaurants as a customer which became a significant portion of his business. “We grew with them in building their product lines; we became a real part of their business,” he recalls of the early days.

That same year, the business partners decided to go their separate ways and close Maury Poultry & Egg. Mr. Gibson kept the pork distribution routes that he developed, including the Whitt’s BBQ account, and started his new business called Gibson Food Products, Inc. Mr. Jim Fesmire kept the poultry business, which included the O’Charley’s account, and started his business as Nashville Egg.

With Gibson Food Products, Mr. Gibson refined his business strategy to being a broadline distributor, offering a diversification of product lines. He further defined his market by specializing in catering to the limited menu restaurants because none of the larger distributors were interested in this niche market.

His warehouse grew to carry and actively sell 2,500 items a week, representing over 50,000 products that were aligned with every major food company in the United States. Mr. Gibson’s business prospered from $300,000 when he started to over $7 million before Gibson Food Products was merged with Choice Food Group.

Mr. Gibson admitted that creating a larger regional distributorship, which would be able to better service operators, be visible to suppliers and assure the personal and professional welfare of his employees, had been his dream for several years.

“I always wanted to build my company or be a part of building one that was really needed by the marketplace and offered opportunities to my employees and customers,” he said. “With becoming a part of Choice Food Group, I was able to ensure the stability and longevity of the company I started.”