The Reclusive 94-Year-Old Who Just Sold His Food Empire for $29 Billion
Nathan Kirsh built Restaurant Depot from one warehouse in Brooklyn in 1976 and after getting his business start in South Africa
- Sysco is acquiring Jetro Restaurant Depot for approximately $29.1 billion, including debt.
- Nathan “Natie” Kirsh, the 94-year-old founder, built the company into a leading cash-and-carry brand.
- Restaurant Depot operates 166 stores across 35 states and generated $16.1 billion in revenue last year.
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 cash-and-carry 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 sale to food-distributor Sysco SYY -15.01%decrease; red down pointing triangle, 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.
He entered wholesale distribution in 1970 when he acquired Moshal Gevisser, a South African distributor experimenting with a cash-and-carry model. Apartheid laws prevented white-owned businesses from operating directly in Black townships. Kirsh used the company to supply goods to Black shopkeepers.
By the mid-1970s, Kirsh was looking abroad. “I had really negative views on the future of South Africa,” he later said, explaining his decision to explore opportunities in the U.S.
During a visit to New York, he studied how small retailers sourced goods and saw an opening. “I went to see how these little stores in New York got their supplies, and I really thought it was very rudimentary and not very efficient,” he said during the talk in 2011.
Kirsh founded Jetro Cash & Carry in Brooklyn in 1976, targeting independent store owners seeking low prices and immediate access to inventory. The concept echoed the cash-and-carry model he had refined in South Africa.
“It took us years to understand that it wasn’t us that had to learn how to run our business, it was our customer who had to change in order to take the benefits he could get from our business,” he said, in his 2011 talk, about the early years.
He expanded steadily, and in 1994 acquired Restaurant Depot, which focused on independent restaurants. The two brands later operated as sister companies under Jetro Holdings, building a nationwide network of warehouse stores serving small food businesses.
The company grew into one of the largest cash-and-carry wholesalers in the country, supplying independent restaurants, caterers and food retailers. It is now helmed by Executive Chairman Stanley Fleishman.
Kirsh, who built much of his wealth through Jetro Holdings and related real-estate investments, has kept a relatively low public profile even as his business expanded.
In addition to Jetro Holdings, Kirsh’s real-estate holdings include a London skyscraper called Tower 42, according to Forbes, which has pegged his wealth at $7.3 billion.