GEORGE LUDLUM HARTFORD Biography - Bussiness people and enterpreneurs

 
 

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GEORGE LUDLUM HARTFORD

Name: George Ludlum Hartford                                                         
Born: November 7, 1864                                                               
Died: September 23, 1957                                                             
                                                                                     
                                                                                     
George Ludlum Hartford (November 7, 1864 - September 23, 1957) was an executive     
with the Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company ("A&P") and successor to his         
father, George Huntington Hartford. Hartford was considered the "financial           
genius" at the firm, working together with his brother John, the firm's "merchandising
power", to build a chain of 4,200 stores and $4.5 billion in annual sales at the     
time of his death.                                                                   
                                                                                     
Hartford was born in Brooklyn, New York on November 7, 1864, and moved to Orange,   
New Jersey as a four-year-old. He started working for A&P on evenings and           
weekends at age 13, and his career spanned 80 years with the firm. He attended       
Saint Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark, New Jersey.                           
                                                                                     
He was behind A&P's efforts at private label baking soda, and later, coffee ("Eight 
O'Clock Coffee"), as part of an effort to work around high wholesale costs for       
these items. The two brothers were behind the change of the firm's name from the     
"Great Atlantic Tea Company" to the "Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company",       
capitalizing on the railroad with a similar name. Beginning with a model store       
in Newark, the firm grew to 3,000 stores by 1915, and had reached a peak of 6,000   
stores nationwide.                                                                   
                                                                                     
He moved to Montclair, New Jersey in 1908 after his marriage. He died at his         
home there on September 23, 1957.