Food Distributors NAICS 4244

Jun 30, 2025 - Distributor Scaling Up

• C&S Wholesale Grocers (CSWG) is moving to grow its grocery distribution and retailing businesses by acquiring SpartanNash in a deal valued at more than $1.7 billion, Grocery Dive reports. Except for Maryland, Texas, and Florida, where both companies have distribution centers, there is relatively little overlap between the two to draw negative attention from regulators, as in CSWG’s previous attempt to acquire hundreds of stores and multiple distribution centers from grocers Kroger and Albertsons as part of their failed merger. The combined company would operate almost 60 complementary distribution centers across the US and would serve close to 10,000 independent retail locations, with collectively more than over 200 corporate-run grocery stores, according to the press release announcing the deal. The larger scale of the combined company will enable it to offer the best possible delivered cost of goods and promotional discounts, per CSWG.
• One of the US’s largest supermarket operators is telling suppliers it won’t accept any price increases due to President Trump’s tariffs on imports, Supermarket News reports. An April letter from Albertsons’ head of merchandising to suppliers reads: “With few exceptions, we are not accepting cost increases due to tariffs,” adding “Suppliers are not permitted to include tariff-related costs in invoices without prior authorization by Albertsons Companies. Any invoices that include such charges without prior authorization will be subject to dispute and may result in payment delays.” Once submitted, the company will take up to 30 days to review the forms and approval is not guaranteed, per SN. As intermediaries between food manufacturers and retailers, food distributors are stuck between grocers taking a hard-line approach regarding tariff-related price increases and manufacturers looking to pass along higher costs to consumers.

• In a move aimed at taking a bigger bite out of the $1.5 trillion grocery market, Target is bringing its supply chain for fresh and frozen food in-house, The Wall Street Journal reports. One of the top sellers of groceries in the US, Target has opened three new food-distribution centers over the past two years and plans to add another in Colorado in 2026, expanding its grocery logistics network to nine temperature-controlled facilities nationwide, according to WSJ. Target’s new warehouses are meant to help place goods close to its stores to keep shelves stocked with in-demand items. Historically, Target has relied on grocery wholesalers to supply fresh foods to its stores, but as its sales have grown the retailer has opted to build out its own logistics network for perishables to better forecast demand and plan inventory, eliminating the middleman between it and its suppliers.
• Producer prices for grocery and related product merchant wholesalers jumped 10.6% in May compared to a year ago after rising 9.3% in the previous May-versus-May annual comparison, according to the latest US Bureau of Labor Statistics data. At retail, the price of food at home rose 2.2% year over year and was up 0.3% versus April, per the BLS. Eggs, roasted coffee, and uncooked ground beef saw the highest YoY increases, up 41.5%, 11.8%, and 9.9%, respectively. Food-away-from-home prices rose 3.8% YoY with food from vending machines and mobile vendors up 5.4% and at full-service establishments up 4.2%. Employment by the industry grew 1.8% YoY in April, while average industry wages dipped 0.9% over the same period to $27.13 per hour, BLS data show.