Podcast: Service is our strength, says Krasdale Foods’ Steve Silver

Welcome to SN Off the Shelf, a podcast series from Supermarket News.

In this twice-monthly feature, SN editors talk with industry executives, experts and other grocery players about the news, trends and issues that matter most to retailers and their business partners.

SN earlier this month spoke with Steve Silver, president and chief operating officer of Krasdale Foods. Based in White Plains, N.Y., the grocery wholesaler operates a 325,000-square-foot distribution center in the Hunts Point section of the Bronx, overlooking Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. That location gives Krasdale an excellent position in one of the nation’s most intensely competitive markets: metropolitan New York.

Krasdale serves more than 300 independent supermarkets in the Northeast and Florida, including about 250 in metro New York. Store banners it supplies include C-Town, Bravo, Aim and Market Fresh supermarkets as well as mini-groceries Shop Smart Food Markets and Stop 1 Food Mart. The company also serves delis, drugstores, convenience stores and a range of other independent merchants.

Besides distribution, Krasdale’s business includes marketing, merchandising, supply chain, financing and other services through its Alpha 1 Marketing, Beta II Marketing, Consolidated Supermarket Supply (CSS), KoolTemp Foods and Waverly subsidiaries.

Most recently, Krasdale announced a refresh of its private-label product lineup, including an updated logo and packaging. But Silver, who added the president’s title in January, noted that the company’s ongoing challenge is to serve a diverse array of retailers in a fast-changing marketplace.

“We have to be experts in many different platforms of stores. We have larger supermarkets that might run similar in size to a big-box store. And then we’re shipping to stores as small as bodegas and corner delis, and those types of stores need heavy service,” he said. “We’re servicing multiple types of businesses. That’s the challenge of our distribution business. Fortunately, we’re located right in the heart of the city, in the Bronx, and we have a strategic logistical advantage over most [competitors]. We can be nimble, quick and diversified and get to a store pretty quickly with exactly what we need to deliver to that customer.”