Providence, Rhode Island-based United Natural Foods Inc. has extended its primary wholesale grocery distribution relationship with Whole Foods Market, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, by entering into an extension of the current distribution agreement. The term of the primary distribution agreement between the parties now runs until Sept. 27, 2027.
“Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, UNFI and Whole Foods have worked closely together to consistently deliver ‘better for you’ foods to consumers throughout North America. This extension allows both companies to maintain focus on what is most important: continuing to meet the growing demand for healthy food at home as we navigate through the global pandemic,” said Steven L. Spinner, UNFI’s chairman and CEO. “We look forward to continuing to play a very important role in the rapidly evolving foodscape and supply chain, while furthering our tradition of innovation, scale and efficiency.”
“UNFI plays a key role in ensuring Whole Foods Market is able to meet the growing demand for high quality products across our network of stores and facilities,” said Bart Beilman, Whole Food Market’s SVP of supply chain and retail operations. “We’re pleased to continue our strong and longstanding partnership with UNFI.”
As the first national certified organic grocer, Whole Foods Market has more than 500 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
UNFI is a food wholesaler delivering the widest variety of products to customer locations throughout North America including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, e-commerce retailers and food service customers. UNFI is the largest publicly traded grocery distributor in the United States.
The company recently named Dorn Wenninger as its SVP of produce. See story, here.
