Stop & Shop invests in minority-owned supplier companies

Stop & Shop is investing a total of $55,000 to the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council (GNEMSDC), which will be used to enhance the content and delivery of GNEMSDC's Development Program for minority-owned businesses, with a special focus on Black-owned businesses. 

GNEMSDC has received a $50,000 investment from Stop & Shop Supermarkets, and an additional $5,000 from the Stop & Shop NextGen Associate Resource Group, a team of Millennial and Gen Z Stop & Shop associates dedicated to economic inclusion.

GNEMSDC’s Development Program focuses on companies certified as a minority business enterprise (MBE) by GNEMSDC. Stop & Shop funding will support this program through one-on-one business consulting tailored to the size and sophistication of each minority business enterprise, along with helping to build sustainable businesses with a specific focus on financial management, operational and process improvements, strategic planning, and marketing. 

“Stop & Shop is committed to supporting to the communities where our associates and customers work and live,” said Gordon Reid, president of Stop & Shop, the Quincy, Mass.-based operator of more than 400 supermarkets in the Northeast. “We hope this investment to GNEMSDC serves as a building block for Black-owned businesses, allowing them to grow, develop and flourish.”

Related:Schnuck Markets launches supplier diversity initiative

With this investment from Stop & Shop and the NextGen group, GNEMSDC will expand the scope of its Development Program beyond just the existing 250 certified MBEs in New England. The expansion will include providing support to Black-owned businesses through integration into Stop & Shop's supply chain in its retail stores and home delivery services throughout New England and the Northeast.

“This investment by Stop & Shop and its NextGen Associate Resource Group will allow us to continue to build an even more effective development program to make more of New England's minority businesses stronger,” said Peter Hurst, president and CEO of GNEMSDC. “Minority business development helps reduce the country's racial wealth gap, and our MBE Development Program will continue to contribute to the health and growth of our current and future MBEs. Covid-19's adverse impact on minority-owned businesses requires a laser-like focus on the levers that drive MBEs' success, including access to contracts with buyers in the private sector and the public sector; access to intellectual capital that allows MBEs' owners to be more effective leaders and managers; and access to financial capital that supports their growth, whether one contract at a time or through mergers and acquisitions.”