Title: Nash Finch Company Records

ID: OGLMC1246

Primary Creator: Nash Finch (1885-)

Extent: 105.0 Linear Feet

Date Acquired: 01/10/1992. More info below under Accruals.

Subjects: Business and Industry, Grand Forks - Business

Languages: English

The Nash Finch Company Records, 1849-present, have been organized into sixteen series:

Series 1: Company History

Series 2: Annual Reports

Series 3: Annual Meetings

Series 4: Meetings

Series 5: Company Financial Materials

Series 6: Individual Store Financial Materials

Series 7: Product History

Series 8: Correspondence

Series 9: Manuals/Procedures

Series 10: Training

Series 11: Publications

Series 12: Family Historical Materials

Series 13: Nash Foundation

Series 14: Photographs

Series 15: Artifacts

Series 16: Oversize Documents

The Nash Finch Company began as a small family-owned retail business in rural North Dakota. In 1885, Fred Nash, with his brothers Edgar and Willis as partners, established a small confectionery and tobacco store in Devils Lake, North Dakota. A year later, the brothers expanded their business to include retail fruit and opened another fruit store in Devils Lake and one in Park River. After fire destroyed the original store in 1887, they relocated to Grand Forks.

Although the company was primarily involved in retail sales, by the time it moved to Grand Forks, the brothers had begun to sell surplus goods to other retailers. When, in 1889, a unique opportunity presented itself, the brothers were quick to expand into wholesaling. After a railroad car of peaches arrived in Grand Forks with no buyer, the brothers secured a loan to purchase the peaches and thus began the Nash Brothers wholesale business. By 1891, Nash Brothers company business was entirely wholesale and included fruits and other grocer lines.

Edgar Nash served as vice-president and manager of the Grand Forks store. After contracting tuberculosis in 1889, however, he moved to California upon his physician's recommendation. There, Edgar acted as the company's western representative, purchasing fruit and shipping it to Grand Forks for distribution. Edgar Nash died in 1896.

After Edgar left for California, the company hired its first non-family employee, Harry B. Finch. Hired initially to handle and clean fruit, Finch quickly assumed greater responsibilities in the company. In 1896, Finch became the manager of Nash Brothers first acquisition outside of North Dakota, Smith Wholesale Company of Crookston, Minnesota.

The company's second major acquisition came in 1904 when it bought the Minot Grocery Company. Nash Brothers devised an innovative scheme to realize the purchase. By reducing its credit terms with retail customers from twelve to six months, the company freed enough cash to buy the Minot Grocery. Finch was placed in charge of this company and also of the Grand Forks Mercantile Company, acquired in 1905, to bolster Nash Brothers operation as a full-line grocery and fruit brokerage. That same year, Nash Brothers formed a partnership with another Grand Forks produce brokerage, C.H. Robinson Company, and Finch was named its vice-president. In 1913, two years after Robinson's unexplained disappearance, Nash Brothers purchased controlling interest in C.H. Robinson Company.

Expansion of Nash Brothers during the early years of its existence was financed in part by employee ownership. Nash Brothers was one of the first companies to provide its employees with an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). Established in 1908, the plan enabled employees to invest in their company. The company, in turn, retained the right of first purchase when employees sold their stock. Although many company ESOP's failed during the Depression, that of Nash Finch continued to operate until World War II.

From 1907 to 1919, Nash Brothers enlarged their holding in the northwestern United States and parts of Canada by building or purchasing fifty-four fruit houses as well as related marketing, shipping, and grocery companies. For instance, in 1916 the company purchased the Caldwell Company, a coffee importer and provider of Nash Brothers "No-Vary Coffee." Fred Nash was president of the Nash Coffee Company until his death in 1926. He was succeeded by Harry Finch. Nash Coffee Company remained a subsidiary of the Nash empire until it was sold to the Otis McCallister Company of San Francisco in 1959.

By 1919, Nash Brothers had expanded its business holdings and territory to such an extent that the company thought it necessary to move its headquarters to a location more accessible to the nation's fresh fruit and grocery markets. On November 13, 1919, Nash Brothers closed its Grand Forks offices and moved to Minneapolis, a rapidly growing urban and regional distribution center.

In 1921, to take advantage of the state's flexible laws, Nash Finch was incorporated in Delaware. Consolidation formed two corporations, Nash Finch Company and Nash-Simington Ltd. of Canada, but did not include the subsidiary of the C.H. Robinson Company, which remained the operation's shipping and brokerage arm. Fred P. Nash was Nash Finch's first president and Willis K. Nash the company's first treasurer. Willis was also president of the Nash Company, incorporated in 1919 to hold company stock for the Nash family. He served as Nash Company's president from 1926 to 1930, chairman of the board from 1930 to 1940, and vice-president from 1940 until his death in 1956 at age 87.

Harry Finch was named president of Nash Shareholders, incorporated in North Dakota in 1922 as Nash Finch's investment division. It ceased operations in 1937 when Merchant Finance Company assumed total responsibility for company investments. Merchant Finance was established in 1932 to assist those independent retailers, with whom Nash Finch dealt, in their capital investment pursuits during the Depression. Also in 1932, Nash Finch sold its Canadian business interests. That sale freed enough capital to buy the company during the Depression. Moreover, Nash Finch was able to buy out competitors and establish a private store brand, "Our Family."

Finch succeeded Fred Nash as president after Nash's death in 1926 at age 66. Finch became chairman of the board in 1929 when W.E. Dietz was named president. Finch resumed the presidency in 1932. In 1939, Finch was named again as the company's chairman of the board and served in that capacity until 1953. Harold Finch, son of Harry Finch, was president of Nash Finch from 1939 through 1961, when he was appointed chairman of the board, a position he held until 1967. His son, Harold B. Finch Jr., was elected president in 1978 and chairman of the board in 1985.

In addition to its notable business ventures, the Nash Finch Company has a distinguished history of philanthropic activities. Chief among these was the Helping Hand Society, established in 1922 to "care for the sick, aged, and disabled, ministering to the needs of the poor, and for the advancement of promotion of charitable aims." In 1931, the society was renamed the Nash Foundation. Since then, foundation monies have aided employees, provided scholarship, and supported other charitable causes.

Business and Industry
Grand Forks - Business

Repository: Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections

Accruals:

Numeous additions have been donated:

Bill Roberts, Nash Finch Company: August 1993 (94-1935); May 1995 (95-2018); June 16, 1995 (95-2019)

John Nash (grandson of Fred P. Nash), Minnetonka, Minnesota: June 22, 1994 (94-1961); December 15, 1995 (95-2049)

Nicholas Nash (grandson of Willis K. Nash), White Bear Lake, Minnesota: March 13, 1995 (95-2009); March 25, 2001 (2001- 2497)

Mary Lois Lowe, (granddaughter of Fred P. Nash), Mount Pleasant, South Carolina in 1995 (95-2039)

Mary Lois Nash Coons, Port Royal, South Carolina: November 18, 1998 (2000-2469)

Access Restrictions: Open for inspection under the rules and regulations of the Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections.

Acquisition Source: Robert Nash, Vice President and Treasurer, Nash Finch Company

Acquisition Method: Donation; 92-1796

Related Publications: Gjovig, Bruce.  Boxcar of Peaches: the Nash Bros. & Nash Finch Company: the First Fifty Years; Our Family.  Grand Forks: Center for Innovation & Business Development, 1990.

Preferred Citation: (Description of Item). Nash Finch Company Records.  OGLMC 1246, Box #, Folder #.  Elwyn B. Robinson Department of Special Collections, Chester Fritz Library, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks.

Finding Aid Revision History: The finding aid was significantly revised in 2012 and 2014.  The finding aid was made publically viewable in September 2014.