- June 26, 2021
- Posted by: Stratford Team
- Category: Business
For more than a year after acquiring fellow distributor Supervalu, United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) couldn’t get rid of its retail stores fast enough. In a matter of months, it sold off or closed dozens of Shop ‘n Save, Hornbacher’s and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy stores it viewed as unwelcome baggage in its $2.9 billion deal announced in summer 2018.
After the pandemic hit the U.S. last year, UNFI paused the sale of its remaining Shoppers stores along with its Cub Foods chain in Minneapolis as supermarket sales ballooned with stock-up shopping. But the plan was still to sell off locations as soon as the market allowed.
“It’s just a question of when as opposed to if,” CEO Steven Spinner said during an investor conference last May.
More than a year and $2.4 billion in retail sales later, the company has changed its tune about owning stores in what’s yet another sign of food retail’s recent revival and the…