Rhee Bros, Inc. ( ko, 리브라더스) is an

Asian food Asian cuisine includes several major regional cuisines: Central Asian, East Asian, North Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and West Asian. A cuisine is a characteristic style of cooking practices and traditions, usually associated with a spe ...

wholesale Wholesaling or distributing is the sale of goods or merchandise to retailers; to industrial, commercial, institutional or other professional business users; or to other wholesalers (wholesale businesses) and related subordinated services. I ...

r and distributor. It sells Asian food products from a variety of origins, including

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of v ...

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

, Thai, and

Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...

; and offers dry, refrigerated, frozen, and household goods. Along with its distribution partners, Rhee Bros sells retail and foodservice accounts in the US and internationally. The company has its headquarters in

Columbia, Maryland Columbia is a census-designated place in Howard County, Maryland, Howard County, Maryland. It is one of the principal communities of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. It is a planned community consisting of 10 self-contained villages ...

. Company revenue was approximately $300 million USD in 2004. Rhee Bros was founded in 1976 by Syng Man Rhee, along with his three brothers, who started in a small warehouse in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, in practice it is an edge cit ...

. In 1989, the company began a retail affiliate relationship to sell Rhee Bros' products at Lotte Plaza, an

Asian supermarket In the West or non-Asian countries, an Asian supermarket largely describes a category of grocery stores that focuses and stocks items and products imported from countries located in the Far East (e.g. East, Southeast and South Asia). These sto ...

chain in the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. A retail relationship with Assi Plaza, which has stores across the country, followed. In 2004, the company reported having over 40 Assi-branded stores in Maryland, New York, California, and Georgia. As of September 2023, Assi Plaza has closed all but two locations. In 2001, the company issued a recall of about 2,400 boxes of "Lotte Margaret" cookies imported from Korea because they contained unlabelled peanuts and eggs. In 2020, Rhee Bros was sued by the state of California for violating Prop 65 with their seafoods which contained high levels of the toxic heavy metals

lead Lead is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metals, heavy metal that is density, denser than most common materials. Lead is Mohs scale of mineral hardness#Intermediate ...

and

cadmium Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, silvery-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Like zinc, it demonstrates oxidation state +2 in most of ...

. The suite also claims that Rhee Bros violated California's unfair competition laws and its prohibition on fraudulent practices.

References

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External links

Rhee Brothers Inc. official site
Food and drink companies of the United States Companies based in Columbia, Maryland American companies established in 1976 Food and drink companies established in 1976