Supervalu to Supply Western Beef

Supervalu Inc. has expanded its supplier partnership with Western Beef to include an additional 22 of Western Beef’s conventional stores and five of its limited assortment stores in New York and New Jersey.

This partnership also marks the expansion of Supervalu in the New York market. The Minneapolis-based company will be the primary grocery supplier for Western Beef beginning in January. Supervalu currently supplies Western Beef’s two stores in Florida; a third Florida store is slated to open soon.

“We already partner with Supervalu in our Florida stores and are looking forward to expanding that relationship to all of our stores,” said Peter Castellana III, president of Western Beef. “We both believe in serving our customers better than anyone else in the industry and we look forward to taking advantage of the variety of products and services that Supervalu provides.”

Supervalu’s Lancaster, Pa., distribution center will supply the 27 Western Beef stores in New York and New Jersey. Florida stores will continue to be supplied by Supervalu’s Southeast region.

“This is an exciting time for Supervalu as we expand our relationship with Western Beef and increase our presence in the New York market,” said Kevin Kemp, president of Supervalu’s Eastern region. “For decades, Western Beef has done an excellent job of serving customers in its local markets. With this expanded partnership, Western Beef will be able to increase the variety of products offered in their Northeast stores while taking advantage of a wide array of support services that we offer.”

Based at an 11-acre facility in New York City, Western Beef operates its own meat, grocery and produce warehouses that serve 29 high-volume warehouse-style supermarkets in New York, New Jersey and Florida.

Supervalu Inc. operates 4,300 stores composed of 1,106 traditional retail stores, including 800 in-store pharmacies; 1,294 hard-discount stores, of which 915 are operated by licensee owners; and 1,900 independent stores serviced primarily by the company’s traditional food distribution business.