Then and Now: Coborn’s Celebrating 100 Years in Business

(KNSI) — St. Cloud-based Coborn’s, Incorporated is celebrating the company’s 100th year in business in 2021.

Chester Coborn started the company, and his two sons also got involved. Duke Coborn had six children, four of them boys: Bob, Dan, Bill, and Ron. That is where the Coborn’s Four Brothers brand name comes from.

From 1921 to 1963, there was just the one Coborn’s location in Sauk Rapids, but as the four brothers became involved, it became difficult to feed four families with just one store, so they began to grow the company. The second Coborn’s was opened after they bought a Red Owl store in Foley, and another after purchasing a building on 5th Avenue South by St. Cloud State University. Until 1972, it was just those three stores. The trajectory was nothing but up as more locations opened through the 70s, 80s, and 90s.

Fourth-generation family member Chris Coborn, the company president and CEO, has led its growth into and through the 21st Century.

What started as a one-room produce market on Benton Drive in Sauk Rapids has grown into a 9,400-employee-owned grocery retailer across four states.

The company’s vice president of marketing, Dennis Host, says that while the last year has been nothing like we’ve ever seen, Coborn’s community focus remains unchanged.

“This is a family who has just had very, very deep roots in central Minnesota, very compassionate hearts, and just very thoughtful about how they serve their customers. They extended credit to families when money was tight, and it really was all about relationships. It’s just been one of those things where you roll with the roller coaster of time and all that happens in history, but really, it does come back to just the very good hearts that the family has had in serving their community and being good stewards to the communities that we serve and serving our customers.”

Being good stewards to the community also includes philanthropy, especially when it comes to helping children. Host explains Coborn’s sponsors little league teams and activities that support health and wellness for children. The other one is hunger.

“Being in the food business, we’re just well-positioned to be in that space, and we realize the significant number of children that are affected but [also] families of those children who have significant food insecurities and so we have built long-standing partnerships with virtually every food shelf in all of the communities that we operate in, to partner with them to be able to support them as best we’re able.”

Host says community support has always been and always will be one of their core values because, “when everybody is healthy and well and fed, the community thrives together.”

It’s not just food and financial assistance. Host says it’s also through volunteerism of employees.

“We have a lot of employees. 9,400 employees across four states here and many, many of them are involved in giving back to their communities through volunteerism or other ways.”

As part of their big anniversary, at all Coborn’s, Cashwise, and Marketplace stores, customers can find a promotion called Deals of the Century, where prices have been dialed back close to what they were 100 years ago. Learn more by clicking here.

Host offered a “heartfelt and very sincere thanks on behalf of the entire company and certainly the Coborn family and the leadership here in the organization to all of the communities that we serve, and to all of our customers who have just been so loyal to us throughout the last 100 years.

“We certainly could not get to a significant milestone of five generations of leadership in a locally owned company that is thought of as a pillar in the community and we’re just so grateful for the support of the community. That has been a big piece of that success so thank you to all of our customers for your support over the last many, many, many decades. It’s been a great ride and we look forward to continuing to serve all of you for the next 100 years.”

Coborn’s First Store