UNFI Wraps Up Winter & Holiday Selling Show
At its first Winter & Holiday Selling Show of 2024, held at the Mohegan Sun Convention Center in Uncasville, Conn., United Natural Foods, Inc. unveiled a selection of new, innovative products and solutions designed to help food retailers drive growth and profitability during the upcoming winter holiday selling season.
Nearly 1,400 customers visited more than 850 exhibitors, including over 50 suppliers from the company’s New Product and Diverse Supplier showcases, during the two-day show. The Mohegan event featured UNFI’s full breadth of fresh, natural, organic, and conventional products as well as its complement of retail services, technology, insights, and solutions to help community grocers of all sizes differentiate, grow, and win in their markets.
“We’re focused on helping our retail customers differentiate and stand out, so they can focus on building loyalty with their shoppers. With the scale, custom insights, deep partnerships, and innovative products we bring to our shows, we are uniquely positioned to help retailers of all sizes and formats provide high-quality food and unique in-store experiences to compete even more effectively,” said UNFI Chief Customer Officer Steve Dietz.
At the show, UNFI highlighted its recently launched UNFI Media Network (UMN), powered by Swiftly. Commenting on the UMN after hearing about it, Paul Hoffman, VP of Purchasing and Retail Sales for Healthy Living, said, "As I was hearing about how this program works, I was asking myself, 'this sounds too easy, where's the catch?' And there wasn't one. I'm excited to learn more as this sounds like a great opportunity for Healthy Living stores."
At celebrations held Tuesday night, UNFI recognized suppliers for the first time with its inaugural Circle of Excellence awards. These awards celebrate the suppliers’ 2023 achievements in innovation, marketing, and growth through partnership. Winners were grouped by merchandising category as well as years in business, reflecting the broad and diverse landscape of UNFI’s supplier partners.
Fifteen suppliers won across nine merchandising categories, and the following three companies were recognized with UNFI’s highest Circle of Excellence award, Supplier of the Year:
- The Kraft Heinz Company – Established Supplier-of-the-Year
- Certified Piedmontese Beef – Emerging Supplier-of-the-Year
- Chomps – Diverse Supplier-of-the-Year
"Congratulations to all of our Supplier Circle of Excellence winners,” said Sandy Douglas, UNFI CEO. “We are grateful to partner with you in supporting our retail customers, and we look forward to continuing to be your go-to-market partner focused on helping to build brands and drive your growth.”
The next exclusive UNFI show will be the UNFI Winter & Holiday Show in Minneapolis, Minn., August 8-9.
Providence, R.I.-based UNFI delivers a wide variety of products to more than 30,000 customer locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, e-commerce retailers and foodservice customers. The largest publicly traded grocery distributor in America, the company is No. 22 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2024 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
