Whole Foods Market Shares Winning Roster of Supplier All-Stars

Whole Foods Market has named the winners of its annual Supplier All-Star Awards, recognizing brands for quality, innovation, value and social responsibility. The 15 recipients represent all departments and a host of product categories, including grocery, specialty, private label, meat, seafood, produce, culinary and whole body.

A team of Whole Foods category experts, merchants and leaders evaluated the nominations, which also came from the grocer’s in-house local foragers who are tasked with finding innovative local items.

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“We are proud to recognize this dedicated group of suppliers and the work they do to serve our customers, advance our mission and propel the industry forward every day,” said Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, chief merchandising and marketing officer at Whole Foods Market. “From emerging local brands to longstanding partners beloved by our team members and customers, these suppliers are essential to our business and continue to raise the bar for excellence within the grocery space. Congratulations to this year’s all-stars on this well-deserved recognition.”

The crop of winners from 2022 range from two-year suppliers of Whole Foods to those who have placed products in the stores for nearly 30 years. The following brands received All-Star honors:

• Abbot’s Butcher
• Athletic Brewing Co.
• Blue Stripes Urban Cacao
• Ciruli Brothers
• Eel River Organic Beef
• FRIAL
• Jasper Hill Farm
• Kettle Cuisine
• New Chapter
• Organic Valley
• Pangea Shellfish Company
• Patagonian Lamb
• SIMPLi
• The Elite Flower
• Vital Farms

This is the 11th year of the awards program, previously known as the Supplier of the Year Awards.                                                                                                                    

The first certified-organic national grocer, Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods has more than 500 stores in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Seattle-based Amazon, which is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2023 list of top food and consumables retailers in North America. PG also named Whole Foods and Amazon as two of its Retailers of the Century.