What McLane Company does

McLane Company, Inc., founded in 1894 and headquartered in Temple, Texas, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the largest wholesale grocery and foodservice supply chain operators in the United States. The company purchases consumer products from CPG manufacturers and distributes them to 110,000+ retail locations spanning convenience stores, chain restaurants, mass merchants, and drug stores, supported by 80+ distribution centers, 6,100 multi-temperature trailers, and over 25,000 employees operating on a nationwide footprint reaching nearly every US zip code with deliveries averaging one every 4.5 seconds.

Its product and service stack extends beyond pure distribution into c-store retail solutions: McLane Fresh (foodservice brands such as Prendisimo turnkey pizza and Central Eats ready-to-heat meals), Consumer Value Products private label across 240+ SKUs, the Best Sellers curation platform, the Emerging Brands online marketplace, and Center for Category Innovation merchandising support. The company has also layered autonomous-trucking operations into its middle-mile logistics through a partnership with Aurora Innovation, transitioning from a supervised pilot to fully driverless commercial service on the Dallas–Houston corridor in May 2026.

The business model is a wholesale distribution transaction-margin model: McLane buys product, sells/delivers it to retail and restaurant customers at negotiated prices, and captures margin on the spread while monetizing adjacent merchandising, private label, and foodservice services. Go-to-market is B2B sales-led, anchored by dedicated account management for enterprise chains (e.g., Wawa, Walgreens, Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse, Kraft Heinz, Hershey, Kellogg's), with consumer reach amplified through proprietary category-management tooling, seasonal promotional programming, and an annual McLane Engage national tradeshow.

Name

McLane Company

Legal name

McLane Company, Inc.

Website

https://mclaneco.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1894

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

McLane Company is a Berkshire Hathaway-owned wholesale distributor that purchases consumer products from manufacturers and distributes them to 110,000+ convenience stores, chain restaurants, mass merchants, and drug stores through 80+ US distribution centers and 6,100 multi-temperature trailers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

NAICS

Service Establishment Equipment and Supplies Merchant Wholesalers (42385)

SIC

Wholesale-Machinery, Equipment & Supplies (5080)

akta.pro primary industry

Institutional Foodservice Distribution (Education, Healthcare, Government) (CRAOABAM)

Keywords

• Wholesale distribution services
• Grocery supply chain
• Foodservice distribution
• Multi-temperature logistics
• Private label products

Headquarters

HQ city

Temple

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Wholesale Distribution Services: McLane generates revenue by distributing consumer products from manufacturers to retail customers including convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores, and chain restaurants. The company buys products from suppliers and sells/delivers them to customers, capturing margin on the transaction.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

McLane Company is a B2B wholesale distributor that purchases consumer products from manufacturers and delivers them to convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores, and chain restaurants across the United States. It operates 80+ distribution centers and a fleet of 6,100+ multi-temperature trailers, moving 10 billion+ pounds of merchandise annually to 110,000+ retail locations. Beyond physical distribution, McLane supplies private label products, retail foodservice programs (McLane Fresh, Prendisimo, Central Eats), and merchandising and category management services.

Product overview

McLane Company is a wholesale distribution company offering a comprehensive suite of supply chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores, and chain restaurants. The company operates a platform-plus-services model centered on core distribution capabilities, supplemented by proprietary c-store retail solutions including McLane Fresh (foodservice products), Consumer Value Products (private label with 240+ SKUs), Best Sellers (data-driven recommendations), Emerging Brands (online marketplace for innovative products), and Merchandising & Marketing services (category management, planograms, digital tools). McLane also provides technology-enabled innovation through its partnership with Aurora Innovation for autonomous trucking operations, enabling driverless middle-mile freight transport while maintaining last-mile delivery capabilities.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• McLane Fresh: Retail foodservice offerings including ready-to-heat meals, pizza, and convenience food products for c-stores
• Central Eats
• Prendisimo
• Consumer Value Products (CVP)
• BeauDacious
• Hometown Market
• Road-Tech
• Work-Fare
• YumBees

Quantifiable outcome

• A new delivery is made every 4.5 seconds
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core and secondary.

• Aurora InnovationcoreTechnology or Integration · 6 May 2026Aurora Innovation and McLane Company partnered to deploy autonomous trucking operations on the Dallas-Houston corridor. The partnership transitioned from a supervised pilot (280,000 autonomous miles, 1,400 loads) to fully driverless commercial operations using Aurora's SAE L4 self-driving system. Aurora handles the middle-mile long-haul segment while McLane drivers manage last-mile local deliveries.
• Volvo Autonomous SolutionssecondaryTechnology or Integration · 6 May 2026While McLane's primary autonomous trucking partnership is with Aurora Innovation, the company also benefits from broader industry partnerships between Aurora and Volvo for the Dallas-Oklahoma City route expansion.
• Consumer Value Products (CVP)coreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorConsumer Value Products is McLane's private label brand offering over 240 SKUs of consumer products designed for convenience retailers, enabling price competitive alternatives to national brands.

Scale indicators8 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Gordon Food Service: Gordon Food Service is a private, broadline foodservice distributor serving restaurants, schools, and healthcare customers across North America. Its broadline foodservice model directly overlaps with McLane Foodservice in restaurant supply chain distribution.
• US Foods Holding Corp: US Foods is the second-largest U.S. broadline foodservice distributor and a direct competitor to McLane in restaurant and institutional foodservice. Like McLane, it operates a national multi-temperature distribution network serving chain restaurants, healthcare, and hospitality customers.
• Performance Food Group: Performance Food Group operates Vistar, Core-Mark, and broadline foodservice distribution. Core-Mark directly overlaps with McLane's c-store distribution business, and PFG's broadline unit overlaps with McLane Foodservice, making it a close multi-segment peer.
• Reyes Holdings: Reyes Holdings operates Reyes Beverage Group, Martin Brower (quick-service restaurant distribution), and Reinhart Foodservice. Martin Brower and Reinhart are direct competitors to McLane's restaurant and foodservice distribution, especially in QSR.
• C&S Wholesale Grocers: C&S Wholesale Grocers is the largest U.S. grocery wholesaler, serving independent supermarkets, chain stores, and military customers. It is the closest analog to McLane's grocery and consumer-goods distribution business, with comparable scale and multi-temperature logistics capabilities.
• Sysco Corporation: Sysco is the largest U.S. broadline foodservice distributor, serving restaurants, healthcare, and educational customers nationwide. It is the most direct competitor to McLane's restaurant and foodservice distribution business, with overlapping product categories, supplier relationships, and customer verticals.

Emerging players

• Dot Foods: Dot Foods is the largest U.S. redistributor of food, snacks, and non-food items, serving foodservice distributors, retailers, and convenience stores. It is a key supply partner and indirect competitor to McLane in foodservice and c-store supply chains.
• SpartanNash: SpartanNash combines retail grocery with a wholesale food distribution business serving military, independent retail, and foodservice customers. It overlaps with McLane in grocery and foodservice distribution but operates at smaller scale and with a more retail-anchored business mix.
• Burris Logistics: Burris Logistics is a private, multi-temperature food distributor serving foodservice, retail, and industrial customers on the U.S. East Coast. Its refrigerated and frozen capabilities overlap with McLane's multi-temperature distribution business on a more regional scale.
• United Natural Foods (UNFI): UNFI is the largest U.S. distributor of natural, organic, and specialty foods, serving retailers and foodservice customers. It is comparable to McLane's grocery distribution business but with a more focused product mix around natural and organic categories.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/mclanecompany
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mclane-company

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Subsidiaries3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments1 record

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

Frequently asked questions about McLane Company