Sprouts Farmers Market Joins Pod Foods’ Distribution Network
Sprouts Farmers Market has joined the nationwide distribution channel of Pod Foods, which aims to reinvent the grocery supply chain with the first full-service wholesale B2B marketplace featuring built-in logistics. Under the deal, Pod Foods will provide about 130 Sprouts stores in the Southeast with immediate access to a virtual warehouse of emerging CPG brands, enabling the retailer to avoid supply chain delays and quickly stock the products that its customers want.
Pod Foods’ unique “virtualized wholesale” model connects grocery retailers with emerging and local brands across the U.S. in real time, with minimal risk and accelerated speed to shelf.
The new partnership with Sprouts “speaks to the market need for Pod Foods,” said Larissa Russell, co-founder and CEO of the San Francisco-based Pod Foods. “Traditional distributors are unable to match the speed of our placement process, and both national and regional chains across the U.S. have taken notice. As consumer preferences continue to drive product demand and retailers look to new strategies to keep shelves stocked, Pod Foods is the catalyst driving a new wave of procurement, customization and customer satisfaction.”
Sprouts will be able to leverage Pod Foods’ data-driven discovery engine, which tracks consumer habits and product demand at the regional level and enables stores to curate inventory accordingly. The entire marketplace is hosted on a single distribution platform and retailers receive personalized product recommendations and optimized fulfillment capabilities, with built-in automation features to ensure that the flow of products is never disrupted. Powered by Pod Foods’ virtualized warehouse, retailers still get the logistics support they’re used to with traditional distributors, in addition to more advanced data and support to deal with potential shortages or delays.
Additionally, to meet higher demand in the region, Pod Foods is opening a new dedicated distribution center in the Southeast. A warehouse in Florida will service the 130 or so Sprouts locations spanning from Tennessee to Florida that are now part of the Pod Foods network. The new warehouse represents another step in Pod Foods’ continued expansion across the United States. The company currently has distribution centers across the country, positioned strategically to service New England, the Northeast, the Mid-Atlantic, the Midwest, the West Coast and the Southeast.
Phoenix-based Sprouts, which employs approximately 31,000 associates at more than 370 stores in 23 states, is No. 53 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
