United Natural Foods (UNFI) and Key Food Stores Co-Operative announced they have reached a long-term supply agreement for UNFI to serve as the primary grocery wholesaler to Key Food with expected sales to UNFI of approximately $10 billion over 10 years.
Founded in 1937, Key Food is a co-operative of independently owned and corporate supermarkets located in New York, New Jersey, other states in the Northeast, and Florida. Stores are operated under multiple banner names that include Key Food, The Food Emporium, Food Universe, Food Dynasty, SuperFresh, and Gala Foods Supermarkets.
“Key Food, whose members operate more than 315 stores, is a rapidly growing organization with a large market share in the New York market,” said UNFI’s Chairman and CEO, Steven Spinner. “We have recently begun to service their Florida stores and are excited to expand service to their Northeast stores toward the end of 2021. We believe our unmatched product variety and knowledge of today’s consumer will benefit Key Food and its retailers, and we look forward to driving value to their operations.”
In its role as the primary grocery wholesaler, UNFI will supply Key Food stores with conventional, natural, and organic grocery products, along with a wide variety of international items. All categories such as protein, produce, frozen bakery, deli, general merchandise/health, and beauty, as well as Key Food’s Urban Meadow private brand and UNFI-owned brands such as Essential Everyday and Woodstock will also be supplied.
“We are excited about our relationship with UNFI,” said Key Food’s Chief Executive Officer, Dean Janeway. “Their unique ability to service the entire store on a single delivery in addition to their industry expertise and buying power gives Key Food members an advantage in the marketplace. We are thrilled to partner with the UNFI team, and our members look forward to offering UNFI’s full line of products to their shoppers.”
To expand the breadth and scope of its distribution network, UNFI will be opening a new state-of-the-art Class A distribution facility in Lehigh County, PA, which is currently under construction. This facility, once complete, is strategically located to provide an additional 1.3 million square feet of distribution capacity for UNFI’s existing and new customers in the greater Northeast and surrounding areas, including Key Food.
UNFI anticipates the new distribution center will create more than 500 local jobs and expects the facility to open in Fall 2021.
Key Food Stores Co-Operative, Inc. includes over 315 member-owned and corporate grocery stores with approximately $3.2 billion in annual sales. In addition to Key Food, these stores operate under various other banners including: Food Universe, The Food Emporium, SuperFresh, Food Dynasty, and Gala Foods Supermarkets in all five boroughs, Long Island, upstate New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Florida.
UNFI is a premier food wholesaler delivering the widest variety of products to customer locations throughout North America including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, eCommerce retailers, and foodservice customers. Today, UNFI is the largest publicly-traded grocery distributor in America.