A 94-year-old South African recluse has sold his food empire for $29.1 billion – growing his business from a single Brooklyn warehouse 50 years ago into a restaurant-supply giant.
Sysco, the nation's largest food distributor, announced Monday that it will acquire Nathan “Natty” Kirsch's Jetro Restaurant Depot — a food supplier with 166 stores in 25 states that generated $16 billion in revenue last year.
According to Forbes, Kirsch owns about a 70% stake in the company, which helped pioneer the “cash-and-carry” model – allowing small restaurant owners to visit their warehouses and pick up food supplies at any time.
Nathan “Natty” Kirsch founded Jetro Cash & Carry in 1976 in a Brooklyn warehouse. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jetro has argued that its business model enables it to win customers at low prices, as it avoids delivery and distribution costs.
“We don't really have any competition,” Kirsch told a London Business School class in 2011. According to the Wall Street Journal.
Kirsch is an unexpected figure in the latest multibillion-dollar megamerger, living a relatively quiet life in the country of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, as he amassed his $7.3 billion fortune. According to Forbes estimates.
He was born in South Africa in 1932 to Lithuanian Jewish immigrants, getting his start in business by helping run his family's malt factory in the town of Potchefstroom.
In 1958, Kirsch started his own milling business in Swaziland, and secured an agreement with the local government giving him a monopoly on purchasing and importing corn. According to Financial MailA South African business publication.
They entered the distribution business in 1970 with the acquisition of Moshal Gevisser, which they used to supply goods to black shop owners in towns where apartheid laws banned white business owners from operating.
By the mid-1970s, Kirsch decided he wanted to move abroad, later saying that at the time “his views on the future of South Africa were really negative”.
And during a visit to New York, Kirsch thought he saw an opportunity to improve the city's distribution model.
Sysco agreed to acquire Jetro Restaurant Depot for $29.1 billion. google maps
According to the WSJ, he told Business Class in 2011, “I went to see how these little stores in New York get their supplies, and I really thought it was very rudimentary and not very efficient.”
In 1976, Kirsch founded Jetro Cash & Carry in a Brooklyn warehouse, using the same cash-and-carry model he had fine-tuned in South Africa.
They acquired Restaurant Depot in 1994, and operated both companies as sister brands under Jetro Holdings – creating one of the largest networks of food warehouse suppliers in the country.
Richard Kirshner now leads Jetro as chief executive and chairman, and former longtime CEO Stanley Fleishman remains as executive chairman.
With Jetro Holdings, Kirsch acquired most of his wealth through an extensive real-estate investment portfolio, including Tower 42, one of London's tallest skyscrapers, and Australia-based Abacus Property Group.
According to Forbes, Kirsch owns about a 70% stake in the company. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Although he is one of Africa's richest billionaires, Kirsch has managed to keep his life relatively private – over the years he has made few public appearances while living in Eswatini. He also has residency status in the US and UK.
According to local reports, Kirsch has focused most of his philanthropic donations on his hometown – funding more than 12,000 people in Eswatini with start-up capital for small businesses.
he also donated Nearly $8.7 million to his alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and $10 million to Jerusalem Arts Complex In 2016.
According to local news outlets, the entrepreneur is married to Francis Herr and has three children.
His daughter, Linda Mireles, serves as President of UJA-Federation of New YorkA non-profit organization that combats anti-Semitism.