Choice Food Distributors, LLC  Milestones

About Us Senior Management History

1946
Choice Food Distributors' early beginnings began as an egg business on the side by the late Paul Bracey, founding member of Bi-Rite Grocery cooperative, who peddled eggs from the back of his grocery store. The grocery was located at 818 South 6th Street. His opened an egg farm in the 1950s called Bracey Egg Farm.

1960s
Paul Bracey closed Bi-Rite Grocery Store and his egg farm but retained his egg distribution business.

1974
Jim Fesmire acquired Paul Bracey’s egg distribution business with an investment of $500 as the beginnings of his Nashville Egg, Inc. business.

1974 – 1978
Nashville Egg, Inc. was a wholesale distributor of only one product, eggs. Business developed with a staff of three, and grew to making $1 million in sales a year.

1978
Mr. Fesmire decided to broaden his product line and shift to food service distribution to restaurants, hotels, day cares, country clubs, hospitals, and institutions.

1979
Nashville Egg, Inc. introduced fresh poultry products to its product line.

1980
Nashville Egg, Inc. added a freezer to accommodate offering frozen food products.

1983
Gibson Food Products, Inc. of Hendersonville, Tenn., founded by owner and president Charles “Butch” Gibson, became a broadline distributor and specialized in a select niche market, catering to the limited menu restaurants.

1987
Nashville Egg, Inc. moved its offices and distribution operations from 818 6th Street to 6167 Neighborly Avenue in West Nashville. Sales doubled from $1 million a year between 1974 to 1978 to $10 million in 1987. Strategies to growth were: expanding product lines, sales force and facilities as well as being customer-oriented.

1998
Sales continued to soar for Nashville Egg, doubling in 11 years.

1999
Twelve years later, Nashville Egg, Inc. finally outgrew its current facility of 7,000 sq. ft. at 6167 Neighborly Avenue with no land available to properly expand. So Mr. Jim Fesmire built a new facility at 6167 Cockrill Bend Circle, which today is the headquarters for Choice Food Distributors. The business went from: 7,000 sq. ft to 30,000 sq. ft.; from 12 trucks to 20 delivery trucks; and from one dock and one drive in door to six docks and one drive in door.

January 2005
Choice Food Group entered the food distribution industry by investing in Nashville Egg, Inc.

June 1, 2005
Choice Food Group expanded its distribution business with the investment in Gibson Food Products, Inc.

September 2005
Choice Food Distributors, Inc. established as a merger between Gibson Food Products Inc. and Nashville Egg, Inc.

April 2006
Choice Food Distributors became a member of All Kitchens’ unit of Progressive Group Alliance, Richmond, Va.

April 2008
Distribution expanded into West Tennessee through the parent company's acquistion of American Seafood Company, Inc.