The Practice School

The Company RESTAURANT DEPOT

Behind the multibillion deal for Jetro Restaurant Depot is its 94-year-old founder who amassed billions by turning a Brooklyn warehouse into a U.S. food empire.

Nathan “Natie” Kirsh founded Restaurant Depot in 1976 as Jetro Cash & Carry, and built the company into a leading brand that dominates the restaurant-supply market. Restaurant Depot operates 166 stores across 35 states and generated about $16 billion in revenue last year.

“We literally have no competition,” Kirsh told a class at the London Business School in 2011. Kirsh still holds a majority stake in the warehouse retailer.

The company pioneered the cash-and-carry model, allowing small-restaurant owners and other independent businesses to visit one of its warehouses to pick up food supplies at any time. By cutting out delivery and distribution costs, the company says it can offer more affordable prices.

The sale to food-distributor Sysco SYY for roughly $29.1 billion including debt, caps an unlikely career for the low-profile Kirsh and his food business.

Born in 1932 in South Africa to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants who ran a malt business, Kirsh ventured into grain milling and then distribution, according to news reports.