Associated Wholesale Grocers prepares to close distribution facilities in Tennessee, Mississippi

Associated Wholesale Grocers’ facilities in Memphis will be closed as operations kick into high gear at a Hernando, Miss., distribution center, reports the Kansas City Business Journal.

Valu Merchandisers Co., a subsidiary of Associated Wholesale Grocers, will shut down operations by Oct. 1. 

A facility in Southaven, Miss., will also close.

According to the Business Journal, AWG, headquartered in Kansas City, Kan., will still have a robust distribution presence in the Memphis region.

Meanwhile, AWG’s new automated 900,000-square-foot distribution facility in Hernando opened in June. The facility cost $300,000 to build and will employ 600 workers, some coming from the company’s Memphis and Southaven locations. 

When fully operational, the distribution facility is expected to serve around 400 grocery stores. Combined, the Southaven and Memphis facilities offered around 1.28 million-square-feet of operations prior to the announcement of their closing.

“AWG has continued work consolidating AWG’s Southaven and Valu Merchandisers’ Memphis facilities into AWG’s new automated warehouse in Hernando, Miss.” AWG said in a statement. “The Hernando facility was opening in phases and started its first shipments in November 2022. Over the past month, we have continued transitioning VMC Memphis and Southaven shipments to Hernando. This transition will be completed by October, which will result in the closing of both facilities at that time.”

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