UNFI Begins Serving Giant Eagle

SN STAFF

NEW YORK — United Natural Foods Inc. has begun distributing product to Giant Eagle this week, as per a new contract with the Pittsburgh-based retailer that was announced last September.

The agreement represents about $40 million in annual revenues for UNFI, the wholesaler's senior vice president and chief financial officer, Mark Shambler, said at the Cowen & Co. 9th Annual Consumer Conference here. He said UNFI expects to realize a little more than half that volume in the current fiscal year, which ends July 31.

The new distribution pact with Giant Eagle comes about a year after UNFI, based in Providence, R.I., began serving a group of other traditional retailers, including Giant-Landover, Kings Super Markets, Wakefern (ShopRite), Lunds & Byerly's, and Ukrop's (now Martin's). Those contracts were launched in the January-May period of 2010.