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GREENSBORO — Southern Foods is making more history for Greensboro.

The Nussbaum family is selling the company to a group of experienced food executives, leaving behind a substantial contribution to a local foundation and the potential for as many as 400 new employees.

When Southern Foods is sold, the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro will receive proceeds from that sale through company stock bequeathed to it by Southern Foods founder Vic Nussbaum Jr. prior to his death in 2001. The sale is expected to close Sept. 12.

The company’s new owners say they expect to expand Southern Foods’ local operations from its current size of 200 employees to as many as 600 at its plant on Old Battleground Road.

Two of the company’s new owners have operated a similar company called Service Foods in the Southeast, founded in 1981. In September 2007, they bought the Southern Foods Home division from the Nussbaums, making Service Foods the largest home-food service in America, according to the company.

They’ve been Southern Foods customers for about 20 years at various times in their careers, said H. Trey Pounders, who will be a principal and the president of Southern Foods.

“We have a good relationship with the (Nussbaum) brothers,” he said.

Now, the new owners plan an aggressive marketing program that looks for more sales in existing markets and expansions to new territory, Pounders said.

They have a good track record: In August, Service Foods was ranked 1046 by Inc. magazine on the Inc. 5000, which notes the fastest-growing companies in America.

Greensboro’s economic and political history have been intertwined with Southern Foods for more than 50 years.

Vic Nussbaum Jr. founded the company in 1954 to supply foods for home use. Today, it is a major supplier to restaurants in the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia.

Nussbaum was a highly regarded three-term mayor from 1987-93.

During those years, the city expanded the Greensboro Coliseum and also won the title All-America City, an award that Nussbaum accepted from former President

George Bush at the White House. The award cited Greensboro for its “Visions” program, a public-private sector partnership directed at energizing the city. He died in 2001.

The new ownership group includes:

• Joseph J. Rodriguez, who will be a principal and chairman of the board. His experience includes ownership in a company that developed 17 hotels. He owned and developed 13 T.G.I. Friday’s restaurants and has developed 51 real estate projects.
• Keith Kantor, who will be a principal and chief executive officer, is the CEO and co-owner of Service Foods.
• Pounders, who will be a principal and president, is a member of the family that founded Service Foods and is its co-owner and president.
• Jack E. Pratt is one of the founders of T.G.I. Friday’s and its chairman until he sold the company. The Pratt family has developed more than $2.5 billion in property.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com