C&S to Distribute for Winn-Dixie

Bi-Lo Holding, parent company of Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie grocery stores, has inked a long-term agreement under which Keene, N.H.-based C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. will provide warehouse, transportation and most procurement services for all 480 Winn-Dixie stores and continue providing services to all 206 Bi-Lo stores.

“We believe this deal will allow us to leverage the experience and buying power of C&S so that we can continue to reinvest in our company and focus on selling great products at a good value to our customers,” said Randall Onstead, president and CEO of Jacksonville, Fla.-based Bi-Lo Holding.

By the end of the year, Winn-Dixie’s six distribution centers – located in Baldwin, Jacksonville, Miami and Orlando, Fla., Montgomery, Ala., and Hammond, La. – will be transitioned. C&S intends to operate the facilities with minimal change to existing associates or their wages and benefits. As each distribution center is transitioned over to C&S, associates of the distribution centers will become employees of C&S.

“C&S is very excited about extending its eight-year relationship with BI-LO to include the Winn-Dixie stores and to further extending our presence in the South,” said Rick Cohen, C&S chairman and CEO. “We are proud to be a part of the ongoing transformation of the BI-LO Winn-Dixie business and look forward to welcoming the many Winn-Dixie associates to the C&S family.”

C&S has provided procurement, warehouse and transportation services for Bi-Lo, LLC since 2005. The new agreement covers both the Bi-Lo and Winn-Dixie banners across the companywide network of nearly 700 stores.

Bi-Lo Holding is the ninth-largest traditional supermarket chain in the United States. The company employs nearly 60,000 associates who serve customers in 686 grocery stores and 484 in-store pharmacies.