Rod Taylor

Horizon Sales, a Service Deli broker, was founded by Jack Taylor in 1982, back before service delis were an integral part of the southern California landscape. The focus on such a small segment proved to be successful. As west coast retailers began growing and building delis, Horizon Sales developed to become one of the top premier perishable brokers. Currently in Southern California, Horizon’s business is about 65 percent service deli, packaged deli and dairy; 20 percent service bakery; and the remainder is service meat, seafood and produce. Horizon is now a total perimeter of the store broker. When it became evident with the changing marketplace and the consolidation of many retailers that Horizon could and should regionalize the business, Horizon decided to expand outside of Southern California. About ten years ago Horizon branched into Northern California with the purchase of a small specialty grocery company. The company was renamed Horizon Specialties and over the last decade the business has changed from 100 percent specialty grocery to 65 to 70 percent perishable. In 2007 Horizon branched out into Arizona to serve the Arizona/New Mexico marketplace. The next markets for Horizon were the Pacific Northwest and Denver, Colo. In these markets, Horizon formed alliances with Willis Marketing Inc. in the Pacific Northwest and United Sales & Services in Denver. Its venture with Willis Marketing has yielded a new company, Horizon Northwest LLC, which represents lines that are regionalized for the West. Horizon has also opened a Utah operation; expanded the operations in Arizona; and formed an alliance with Rainbow Sales & Marketing brokerage in Hawaii. These changes give Principals a single point of contact in the Western U.S. Horizon handles all the order processing, promotions, deductions and all the financials associated with an account through the Southern California operations team.