What JOH does

JOH is a family-owned food broker founded in 1956 and headquartered in Billerica, Massachusetts, serving consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and North Central United States. The company provides full-service sales and marketing representation across 13 retail categories—Bakery, Confection, Dairy, Deli, Frozen, GM & Household, Grocery, Health Beauty & Wellness, Meat, Private Label, Produce & Floral, Seafood, and Specialty & Natural—via headquarters-level sales, client management, deductions management, analytics and insights, and commerce marketing capabilities. Working with retailers that include Target, Walmart, CVS, Kroger, Wegmans, Whole Foods, Costco, Albertsons, and Amazon, JOH is positioned as a relationship-led, mid-sized regional broker with explicit emphasis on long-term partnership over transactional representation. Governance remains family-controlled, with John Saidnawey serving as Chairman and CEO.

Underlying the services business are two proprietary technology platforms: KartSmartr, supporting retail execution and category management, and Six60, supporting commerce marketing. National footprint is achieved through ownership and membership in OSMG America, a broker network providing coverage across all Food, Drug, Mass, and Club channels in the U.S. As a transaction-fee intermediary, JOH earns commissions from CPG brands for retail placement, category management, HQ sales representation, deductions management, and commerce marketing. No public revenue, funding, or valuation data is disclosed; the company is privately held and family-owned with 501-1,000 employees.

Name

JOH

Legal name

JOH

Website

https://johare.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1956

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

501–1,000 employees

Short description

JOH is a family-owned food broker founded in 1956, headquartered in Billerica, MA, providing full-service sales, marketing, and category management representation to consumer packaged goods brands across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and North Central United States, with national reach via OSMG America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Billerica

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D

Revenue model

1. Food Broker Commission: JOH earns commissions from CPG brands for sales and marketing services, including retail placement, category management, headquarter sales, deductions management, and commerce marketing. The company acts as an intermediary connecting consumer packaged goods brands with retailers across Food, Drug, Mass, and Club channels.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels6 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

JOH is a family-owned full-service food broker that provides sales and marketing representation for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands. The company places brands into retail channels across Food, Drug, Mass, and Club accounts through headquarter sales, category management, account management, deductions management, analytics & insights, and commerce marketing. Operations cover 13 categories including Bakery, Confection, Dairy, Deli, Frozen, GM & Household, Grocery, Health Beauty & Wellness, Meat, Private Label, Produce & Floral, Seafood, and Specialty & Natural, supported by two proprietary platforms: KartSmartr and Six60.

Product overview

JOH is a family-owned food broker offering sales and marketing representation for consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands across the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and North Central regions of the United States. The company's offering is a unified service model combining category expertise with proprietary technology tools. Core services include full-service food broker representation across 13 retail categories (Bakery, Confection, Dairy, Deli, Frozen, GM & Household, Grocery, Health Beauty & Wellness, Meat, Private Label, Produce & Floral, Seafood, and Specialty & Natural), supported by Headquarter Sales, Client Management, Deductions Management, and Analytics & Insights capabilities. JOH also offers two proprietary platform tools—KartSmartr and Six60—along with Commerce Marketing services. As an owner and member of OSMG America, the company extends coverage across Food, Drug, Mass, and Club channels nationwide.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• KartSmartr: A capability/platform offered by JOH for retail management and insights.
• Six60

Products and services

• Food Broker Services Full-service food broker representation across 13 retail categories including Bakery, Confection, Dairy, Deli, Frozen, GM & Household, Grocery, Health Beauty & Wellness, Meat, Private Label, Produce & Floral, Seafood, and Specialty & Natural. Targeted at CPG brand manufacturers seeking retail distribution across Food, Drug, Mass, and Club channels.
• Headquarter Sales National account and headquarters-level sales capabilities for managing relationships with major retail chain headquarters. Targeted at CPG brands seeking national account representation at retailer HQ level.
• Client Management Account management services for maintaining and growing CPG client relationships throughout the broker partnership lifecycle. Targeted at CPG brand manufacturers under JOH broker representation.
• Deductions Management Services to manage and resolve deductions, chargebacks, and financial discrepancies between CPG manufacturers and retailers. Targeted at CPG brands seeking to reconcile trade-spend deductions with retail partners.
• Analytics & Insights Data analytics and business intelligence capabilities providing insights into sales performance, market trends, and category dynamics. Targeted at CPG brands seeking data-driven retail performance visibility.
• Commerce Marketing Marketing services focused on in-store commerce execution, promotional support, and retail activation. Targeted at CPG brands seeking commerce marketing support across retail accounts.
• KartSmartr Proprietary platform tool provided by JOH to support retail execution and category management capabilities for food broker operations and CPG clients.
• Six60 Proprietary commerce marketing platform provided by JOH for driving retail performance and supporting commerce marketing services for CPG clients.

Quantifiable outcome

• Exceeded expectations for business results and professionalism

Named customers12 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• OSMG AmericacoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerJOH is an owner and member of OSMG America, a national food broker network. This partnership enables JOH to offer comprehensive coverage across all Food, Drug, Mass and Club channels throughout the United States, combining their regional expertise in Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and North Central with national reach.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Acosta: Acosta is one of the largest U.S. sales and marketing agencies serving CPG brands across grocery, mass, and club channels, making it the closest direct competitor to JOH in food broker services and retail execution.
• Advantage Solutions: Advantage Solutions (parent of Daymon, ASM, and other sales-agency brands) is a leading CPG brokerage and retail-services firm with national coverage and tech-enabled execution, mirroring JOH's broker-plus-platform model at a much larger scale.
• Crossmark: Crossmark provides sales, retail merchandising, and marketing services to CPG brands across grocery and mass channels, directly competing with JOH for headquarter and regional broker mandates.
• SAS Retail Services: SAS Retail Services offers retail merchandising and category management for CPG suppliers, overlapping with JOH's retail execution, deductions management, and in-store activation capabilities.
• WIS International: WIS provides retail inventory and merchandising services for CPG brands and retailers, comparable to JOH in supporting in-store execution and analytics for grocery and mass customers.

Regional players

• KeHE Distributors: KeHe is a specialty food and CPG distributor and broker partner of JOH, addressing overlapping CPG route-to-market needs in the natural/specialty channel where JOH is adjacent rather than directly competing.
• SpartanNash: SpartanNash distributes food and operates grocery banners across the Midwest and Northeast—the same regions JOH serves—making it a comparable distribution and retail-services peer in JOH's core geographies.

Broad incumbents

• UNFI: UNFI is the largest U.S. wholesale distributor of natural, organic, and specialty foods, providing distribution and broker-adjacent services in the specialty channel where JOH also operates.
• Core-Mark International: Core-Mark (now part of Performance Food Group) is a large broad-line distributor to convenience and grocery channels, providing wholesale trade services comparable in scale to JOH's full-line Food, Drug, Mass, and Club coverage.
• Performance Food Group: Performance Food Group is a large broadline food distributor with retail and foodservice customers, representing the wholesale distribution model that sits adjacent to JOH's CPG brokerage and category management business.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/profile.php

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about JOH