Alex Lee

Consolidation Services is part of the Alex Lee family of companies. Alex Lee is a holding company for four southeastern food/warehousing companies including: Merchants Distributors, Inc. (MDI), a wholesale food and merchandise distributor; Lowe's Food Stores, Inc. (Lowes Foods), a supermarket operator; Institution Food House, Inc. (IFH), a food service distributor, and Consolidation Services, a third party logistics and public warehousing company.

Alex Lee companies serve it’s own food stores as well as other independent retail operations and supermarkets. The company is also a food service provider for restaurants, schools, and other institutions.

MDI is the largest wholesale grocery store distributor in the southeast. Headquartered in Hickory, North Carolina, MDI supplies over 600 retail food stores with food and non-food items. Its service area consists of Alabama, Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. MDI also exports food and non-food products internationally.

Lowes Foods operates more than 100 stores and continues to open new stores throughout North and South Carolina.

IFH is one of the largest food service distributors in the country. It is the largest, independently owned foodservice distributor home-based in the Carolinas.

In 1984 Lowes Foods was acquired by MDI. Alex Lee was formed in 1992 after MDI purchased Institution Food House, creating an integrated food distribution company.

Alex Lee was named in honor of its founders, Alex and Lee George. Alex and Lee were generous people who cared about both friends and strangers. Alex George, the entrepreneur, knew everyone's name and directed the warehouse operations. Lee George, the negotiator, was adept at procurement and sales, but was best known for his kindness. Their integrity, honesty, fairness and loyalty earned them wide trust and great respect among both customers and employees. Alex and Lee believed in customer service and guided the company through good and bad times by focusing on how they could best serve the customer.

The tradition begun by Alex and Lee George continues today at all the operating companies: Consolidation Services, MDI, Lowes, and IFH. Each of the Alex Lee companies has grown tremendously over the years by remaining committed to doing what's right for the customer. Today's team of employees at Alex Lee, Inc. take great pride in creating services that make life easier for our customers and distinguish us from our competitors.