UNFI’s Wholesale President Delves Into New Business Strategy
When United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) embarked on a new growth plan, “Fuel the Future,” in 2021, the food manufacturing and retail industries were still contending with a lingering pandemic, rising food prices and concurrent labor shortages and supply chain challenges. Heading into 2025, while many of those crises abated and the company reported better-than-expected sales during its most recent quarter, other challenges have cropped up, leading UNFI to launch a new three-year plan aimed at driving value across its network of suppliers and customers.
Louis Martin, president, wholesale, at UNFI, sat down with Progressive Grocer’s newly promoted editorial director and associate publisher, Gina Acosta, during the recent Grocery Impact event in Orlando, Fla., and talked about those growth plans and other drivers of UNFI’s business in the new fiscal year and beyond. “Our new strategy is focused on two big things: adding value and becoming a more efficient partner for our customers and suppliers,” he explained, during a “State of the Industry” session on Nov. 8.
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As for the tactics behind the strategy, Martin shared with the Grocery Impact audience that the company is focusing on its portfolio and its own processes as it serves more than 30,000 customer locations. “We are working to provide a differentiated set of products, programs, and services that help our partners effectively compete, while optimizing our business model to serve them as efficiently as possible,” he noted.
To that end, Martin shared efforts to better serve brands, including its UNFI Insights programs. Creating a differentiated product set also includes finding and fostering new brands, something that UNFI is doing through initiatives like a Pitch Slam contest and educational “bootcamps.”
Another new service with shared benefits is the company’s retail media network, launched last summer for independent and regional grocers around the United States and an addition that Martin sees as a game changer. “It will enable UNFI’s customers to have the digital solutions and access to customer data that the big-box mass retailers have,” he remarked, adding that two new retail banners have recently joined that RMN.
Martin also delved into ways that UNFI is supporting its retail customers as the market remains competitive and still somewhat uncertain. “I would say there are two ways to think about how we focus on helping our retail partners grow. The first is not just bringing the brands that they see into their stores in the most effective way possible, but supplementing that with other value propositions, whether they're brand related or product related or service related. We also have a whole focus on anything that we can grow. We want to help them do that, whether it's helping pricing or, if you're opening a new store, helping with the things like layout and design, shelving units and equipment,” he said.
Meanwhile, recognizing the importance of efficiencies in driving gains for suppliers and retailers, UNFI is continuing an optimization of its distribution center network. As the wholesale distributor takes a streamlining tack, the company keeps its eye on more sustainable ways of doing business, spanning climate, sourcing, safety, community, waste, well-being and belonging.
“What we want to do is to make sure that any target that we have out there is science based. We take steps both on what we can do to improve our footprint within the boundaries of the business that we have, but also partner with suppliers and making sure that we're helping them establish their own goals and parameters and how they can benefit and improve their footprint,” Martin explained.
He continued, “If you're in this industry, you love people, you love communities and you love being in the business where you're providing service. It’s important to get better every day – I've always felt that no matter how smart we think we are, we always reserve the right to get smarter. And it’s also thinking about how we can create a culture that promotes collaboration.”
