Mitchell Grocery Teams With Ace Hardware Wholesaler
Wholesale distributor Mitchell Grocery Corp. has joined forces with Emery Jensen Distribution, Ace Hardware’s wholesale division, to expand and improve its general merchandise program. The partnership enables Albertville, Ala.-based Mitchell to offer 8,000 grocery-relevant SKUs and access to more than 90,000 other SKUs to all of its independent retail customers.
Mitchell’s retail customers can now order these items for cross-dock on their regularly scheduled deliveries. The program lets all Mitchell customers add such items as kitchen accessories, hardware and grilling accessories to their store inventories. As well as 40 in-aisle planogram sections, Emery Jensen provides full seasonal programs and a complete clip-strip program. Mitchell retailers additionally have access to Hallmark’s greeting card program and a complete Bissell carpet-cleaning rental program.
According to Mitchell, the partnership offers its customers quality, useful brand-name general merchandise items at affordable prices, and the products add to shopper convenience and give them more reason to shop with the company’s retailers.
“We are extremely excited to announce this partnership, and we have great confidence that this will put our retailers in the best position to compete,” said Mitchell Director of Store Development Jackson Mitchell. “We believe that Emery Jensen has a superior offering and has created a program specifically compatible with our mission to improve our current general merchandise initiatives for the benefit of our customers.”
“Our goal is to help Mitchell Grocery be the best at what they do so they can better serve their customers,” noted Mark Spanswick, president and general manager of Oak Brook, Ill.-based Emery Jensen, which currently distributes to more than 2,000 retail locations nationally. “We are so excited to see this relationship take off, allowing Mitchell to create a stronger, more competitive position in all of their markets.”
In other Ace Hardware news, Kroger has reportedly been in talks to add Ace stores-within-stores at Kroger supermarkets, while Giant Eagle has revealed plans to install Ace-branded home improvement sections at four Pennsylvania locations, starting this summer. The hardware chain has already inked similar deals with some indies.
In other Mitchell news, the company entered into a deal last month to purchase three northeast Alabama Winn-Dixie stores from bankrupt Southeastern Grocers. Mitchell is buying the stores, located in Jacksonville, Oxford and Pell City, on behalf of two of its customers, Johnson’s Giant Foods and The D’Alessandro Organization LLC.
Mitchell’s wholesale grocery distribution center serves more than 200 independent supermarkets in the Southeast. The company distributes more than 20,000 items, including a full line of grocery, fresh meat, fresh produce, dairy, frozen food, ice cream, health and beauty care, and deli-bakery items. It also offers various services to support independent supermarkets, among them payroll, retail accounting, advertising, retail pricing, computer host support and new store development.