George Huntington Hartford was an American businessman. He was the owner of The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P) from 1878 until his death.
Background
George Huntington Hartford was born on September 5, 1833 in Augusta, Maine, United States. He was the son of Joshua Brackett Hartford and Martha Soren. His family came to New Hampshire in the late 1600s when Nicholas Hartford immigrated from Hertfordshire, England. Hartford's grandfather moved to Augusta, Maine in 1796.
Education
Hartford received minimal formal education and at age 18 sailed to Boston, Massachusetts where he worked as a dry goods store clerk.
Career
The company founding myth is that George Hartford and George Gilman started A&P in New York City in 1859. However, the 1859 St. Louis, Missouri directory lists George and his brother John Hartford as employees of Gilman's leather tanning firm which was based in New York but had an office in St. Louis. By 1860, the Hartford brothers returned to Augusta, Maine where John was listed in the census as a merchant and George as a box maker. Shortly after the census, John moved to New York City, where he is listed in the city directory with George Gilman in the tea importing business that ultimately became A&P.
There is no known record of Hartford in New York prior to 1861. While John Hartford quickly left the firm, George joined Gilman as a clerk by 1861; he later was promoted to bookkeeper, then cashier in 1866.
Gilman was a master at promotion and the business quickly expanded by advertising low prices. In addition to the stores in New York, Gilman also built a nationwide mail order business. During this period, Hartford's role continued to grow and in 1871 he was responsible for expanding A&P to Chicago after the great fire. A&P's first store outside New York City was opened within days after the disaster. By 1875, A&P had stores in 16 cities. Three years later, Gilman retired and left the active management of the firm to Hartford. By then, the firm operated 70 lavishly-equipped stores and a mail order business with combined annual sales of $1 million.
About 1880, A&P started selling sugar in its stores and continued aggressive growth. By 1884, the firm operated stores as far west as Kansas City and south as Atlanta. The company also operated wagon routes to serve rural customers. About this time, two of Mr. Hartford's sons, George and John joined the firm. Company lore is that George convinced his father to expand the product line to include A&P branded baking powder. Over the next decade, the company added other A&P branded products such as condensed milk, spices, and butter. As it expanded its offerings, the tea company was gradually creating the first grocery chain. By the end of the century, the firm had sales of $5 million from 198 stores as well as its mail order and wagon route operations. However, other new grocery chains were expanding more rapidly and blanketing their respective territories while the tea company's stores were spread over a much larger area. The firm quickly found itself at a disadvantage.
In 1901, George Gilman died without a will, starting a legal battle among his numerous heirs. Mr. Hartford stepped into the battle by asserting that in 1878, Gilman give him half of the company in an unwritten partnership agreement. Evidence provided to the court established that Hartford received half of A&P's profits since 1878 and that all of the company's leases were in his name. The heirs realized that without Hartford, the firm would quickly become unprofitable. Therefore, they agreed to a settlement where the company was incorporated at $2. 1 million. Under this agreement, the Gilman heirs received $1. 25 million in preferred shares paying 6% per year while Hartford received $700, 000 in common stock and the remainder of the preferred shares. This gave Hartford control of all of the voting stock. Over the years, Hartford was also able to repurchase the preferred shares from the Gilman heirs. At the end of the litigation, A&P only ranked fifth nationally and the Hartfords moved aggressively to rebuild the enterprise. The chain opened one store every three weeks and expanded the wagon routes to over 5000.
In 1907 or 1908, Mr. Hartford divided management responsibilities among his sons with George controlling finance and John directing sales and operations. The two ran the company as a team for over 40 years. The younger Hartford moved aggressively to expand the company and by 1912, A&P operated 400 stores. Food prices were a political issue in that year's presidential race and a few chains experimented with a low cost no frills format. After long debate, the elder Hartford and his first son, George agreed to John's proposal to experiment with a low cost economy store. Capitalized at only $3, 000 including its initial inventory, the store operated with only a manager and eliminated fancy fixtures and premiums. The company quickly expanded the concept and by 1915 the chain operated 1600 stores.
Mr. Hartford died in 1917 and left his estate to a one generation trust equally divided among his five children.
Achievements
Religion
Hartford was a Catholic.
Politics
When the incumbent Mayor decided not to seek reelection in 1878, the local Democratic organization experienced difficulties finding a candidate and ultimately asked Hartford. Hartford was acceptable to the large Irish and German immigrant communities, and as a businessman, he appealed to many Republicans. As a Mayor he was progressive, building schools, installing electric lighting and starting a municipal water system. The burning issue during the period was temperance and in 1888, the Mayor shut down saloons operating illegally on Sunday. That action generated substantial opposition within the Democratic Party and in 1890 Hartford was defeated.
Connections
In July 1861, Hartford married Marie Josephine Ludlum of Goshen, New York. They had two children: Maria Josephine and George Ludlum while in Brooklyn. After his promotion to cashier in 1866, Hartford moved his family to Orange, New Jersey where they had three more children - Edward Vassallo, John Augustine and Marie Louise.