SuperValu Buys Midwest Operations and C&S Wholesale Grocers

EDEN PRAIRIE, MN-SuperValu Inc. and C&S Wholesale Grocers recently said they completed a previously announced asset exchange, in which SuperValu gets former Fleming Midwest operations in exchange for its New England operations.

The former Fleming Midwest operations primarily included real estate in La Crosse and Waukesha, WI, as well as customer supply agreements, inventory, trade names of Sentry Foods and Festival Foods. The Fleming plants in Wisconsin, as well as one in Massillon, OH, will be closed. SuperValu, based in Eden Prairie, MN, will serve the additional customers from its existing facilities in the Midwest.

Brattleboro, VT-based C&S gets SuperValu’s New England operations, primarily including customer supply agreements, inventory, three owned distribution centers located in Portland, ME; Andover, MA; and Cranston, RI, and a closed, leased facility in Suffield, CT C&S is servicing all of the customers of these facilities.

Terms of the transaction have not been released. Fleming won a bankruptcy judge’s permission last month to sell its main grocery distribution business to C&S for about $400 million.

With annual revenues nearing $20 billion, SuperValu has 1,436 retail grocery locations, including licensed Save-A-Lot locations, in addition to its wholesale grocery business.