SpartanNash acquires Midwestern grocery supplier Great Lakes Foods

Dive Brief:

SpartanNash has acquired independent grocery wholesaler Great Lake Foods along with its 300,000-square-foot distribution center that serves the Midwest region, according to a Thursday press release. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Customers of Great Lake Foods will gain access to SpartanNash’s marketing and merchandising support, portfolio of private label goods and insights from its wholesale and retail businesses.
The integration of the two companies is set to roll out over the course of 2023 and follows SpartanNash’s sale of several distribution centers in 2022.

Dive Insight:

SpartanNash plans to invest in capital and IT updates to Great Lake Foods' business and distribution center in Menominee, Michigan, while also expanding service offerings to its customers, according to the press release. The food solutions company also stated it will retain all 125 of Great Lake Foods’ associates.

“The location of this distribution center is ideal for serving both new and existing customers in the surrounding communities — as well as our own Company-owned stores in the Upper Peninsula” of Michigan, Masiar Tayebi, SpartanNash’s executive vice president and chief strategy and information officer said in a statement.

Great Lake Foods has been in business for more than 100 years and supplies wholesale groceries, produce, meat, dairy, frozen products, private label items, bakery, deli and other merchandise to grocery and convenience stores in Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois, according to its website.

SpartanNash’s acquisition of Great Lake Foods is its latest effort to expand. In June, the company announced purchasing the Michigan family-owned grocery store chain Shop-N-Save Food Centers, which SpartanNash had been supplying for nearly 25 years.

More recently, SpartanNash sold four distribution centers — totaling 483,000 square feet — in a $29.9 million deal with investment company Provender Partners. In November, in an effort to sharpen its value proposition, SpartanNash consolidated its fleet of supermarkets under its Family Fare, Supermercado, Martin’s and D&W banners.