Church Point Wholesale acquires CONCO convenience store division

At a time when most companies are cutting back, Acadia Parish-based Church Point Wholesale is expanding — into two more states. The firm — one of the largest full-line wholesale distributors to supermarkets, superettes, convenience stores and delis in the southeast — has acquired CONCO Food Distributors’ Convenience Store Wholesale Division. The move boosts CPW’s presence in Louisiana and Mississippi and expands the company’s reach into Alabama and Florida. Both companies started in the early 1900s as family-run businesses. The acquisition gives CPW hundreds of new chain and independent customers. CPW President Jack Casanova says CONCO is a “natural fit.” “The acquisition of this business adds a major operating unit of one of Louisiana’s oldest grocery and tobacco wholesalers into our company,” he says, “ensuring that jobs that may have gone to another state will remain right here in Louisiana.” CPW is a division of Acadia Wholesale and Tobacco Company Inc., which also operates Pelican Cigar & Tobacco of Lake Charles and Lafayette Drugs/Abe’s Sales and Service Company of Lafayette, a general merchandise distributor. CONCO Food Service operates from three facilities in Harahan, Lafayette and Shreveport.