TOPS MARKETS

TOPS

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1951 - Armand Castellani opened Great Bear Market in Niagara Falls, NY. Shortly thereafter Thomas Buscaglia, a grocery
          equipment salesman became a partner and together the entered into cooperative agreements with other small grocery
          operators which became the foundation for the Tops Friendly Market chain.
1958 - The company's headquarters are moved to Buffalo, NY.
1960 - The company opened its first modern supermarket in Niagara Falls and changed the company's name to Niagara
          Frontier Services (NFS).
1962 - A franchise system was established for independently owned supermarkets under the Tops Friendly Markets banner.
         The B-Kwik store banner was developed for smaller independently owned grocery stores. By the end of the year,
          there are 15 franchised stores in Western New York.
1968 - NFS becomes a publicly traded company and acquired general merchandise distributor G & G Sales and Service.
1969 - NFS launched its convenience store format under the Wilson Farms Neighborhood Food Store banner.
1983 - With 65 Tops stores, 50 Wilson Farm stores and 15 B-Kwik stores, NFS is acquired by investment firm SB Investors.
1986 - SB Investors changed its name to Tops Markets, Inc. and became a public company once again.
1987 - Tops is acquired through a leveraged buyout by a Texas investment group and Tops executives.
1991 - With 145 stores, Tops is acquired by Netherlands based Royal Ahold.
1991 - Tops launches its Tops International Super Center format stores.
1996 - Ahold merges its Northeastern Ohio Finast stores with Tops.
1999 - All 45 merged Finast stores in Northeastern Ohio assume the Tops name.
2000 - Tops acquires the 87 unit Sugarcreek Stores convenience store chain and adds them to its Wilson Farms division.
2001 - Tops acquired 22 former Grand Union Supermarkets locations in New York and the company opens its 150th store.
2001 - The company launches its Tops Xpress convenience store/fuel center banner.
2005 - Tops sells its convenience store chains to WFI Acquisition, Inc.
2005 - C & S's Grand Union Family Markets acquired 12 Tops Markets stores in New York.
2005 - Tops operates 125 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio as a division of Ahold's Carlisle, PA based
          Giant Food Stores.
2006 - 5 Northeastern New York stores are sold to C&S Wholesale Grocers and are renamed Grand Union Family Markets.
2006 - Ahold announces that it will pull out of the Northeastern Ohio market putting all 45 Ohio Tops stores up for sale.
          18 of these stores are sold to Giant Eagle.