Alex Lee, Inc. is an American wholesale and distributor portfolio based in headquarters in Hickory, North Carolina, United States. Alex Lee is ranked 139 on the list of largest privately held companies in the United States, as listed by Forbes. Alex Lee owns the Lowes Foods supermarket chain as well as Merchants Distributors, Inc., which supplies more than 600 stores located in nine states, mostly in the Southeast.
The company's roots date back to around 1920, when A.C. Kelly took over Merchants Produce Company of Hickory, a wholesale fruit and produce company. In 1931, Moses George, a Shelby, North Carolina grocer, bought Merchants Produce for 17,000andbeganrunningitwithhissonsAlexandG.L.George.MerchantsProducetookadvantageofthetrendawayfrom"mom−and−pop"grocerystores,aschainstoresbecamecommon.In1938,thenamechangedtoMerchantsProduceandGroceryasthecompanybecameanimportantdistributorofmerchandisetotheindependentstoresinNorthCarolinaandSouthCarolina.AfterMosesGeorgediedin1947,hissonsAlexandLeetookoverthebusiness,alongwithdaughterJosephine.ThenamechangedtoMerchantsDistributorsInc.orMDIin1956.By1960,MDIhadover130employeesandsupplied400grocerystoreswithin150miles.AlexGeorgewaspresident,andthecompanyaddeda1 million, four-acre facility on Twelfth Street. In 1965, MDI began selling to schools and eventually merged its MDI Foodservice with James Wholesale Company, also in Hickory, forming Institution Food House (IFH), with Lee George as president. Norman James was vice president; after his death, the George brothers bought his share of the company and made IFH a subsidiary of MDI. Lee George retired in 1980 but remained chairman.
After MDI bought Institution Food House, in 1992, MDI reorganized as a holding company, Alex Lee, Inc., with MDI, IFH and Lowes Foods as subsidiaries, named for Alex and Lee George. MDI president Boyd Lee George, grandson of the founder, became chairman and president, remaining as chairman of MDI.
