Dive Brief:
- Gordon Food Service said it will rebrand all 170 of its GFS Marketplace grocery stores as Gordon Food Service Stores.
- The move is meant to show the connection between the company's primary business as a food service distributor and its much smaller retail operations.
- A new logo and tagline, "Always at your table," accompanies the name change.
Dive Insight:
Gordon Food Service is the largest privately held food service operator in the U.S. Among industry insiders, it's a very well-known name, but among consumers, it is about as behind-the-scenes and invisible as rivals Sysco and US Foods.
It's probably a wise move to put the Gordon name up front if only because it sounds more family friendly than GFS. But calling something a "food service store" is an unusual choice, akin to calling something a wholesale retailer. But that may be the point. If the new name conveys an image of discount, wholesale pricing, it may win over consumers.
