Dive Brief:

• SpartanNash has unveiled a new online system that offers a broadened selection of specialty and local foods to independent retailers, the grocery distributor and retailer announced in a press release on Monday.
• The company developed the ordering and payment platform, known as SpartanNash SpecialtyDirect, through a strategic partnership with technology firm Specialty Food Partners.
• SpartanNash is stepping up the technology it uses to serve retailers against a backdrop of intense pressure from activist investors critical of its financial performance.

Dive Insight:

The new fulfillment system is designed to make it more convenient for the 2,100 independent grocers that source products from SpartanNash to peruse available items, place orders, handle invoices and manage deliveries, according to the announcement.

The company said it wanted to speed the ordering process for retailers and offer them a wider selection of specialty products at a time when consumers are increasingly looking for “new, unique and local” options when shopping for groceries.

“We’re here to ensure independent grocers have everything they need to respond to their customers’ tastes and preferences, without taking away from their valuable time spent managing their grocery stores, servicing their shoppers and supporting their in-store team members,” Bennett Morgan, SpartanNash’s senior vice president and chief merchandising officer, said in the announcement.

Specialty Food Partners indicated in the announcement that it opted to work with SpartanNash because the grocer serves retailers outside major metropolitan areas. 

“SpartanNash is an ideal partner for us because the company’s expansive distribution network to many independent grocery stores across America’s heartland means shoppers don’t have to live in a major city to satisfy their newest flavor exploration or try the latest startup brand,” Specialty Food Partners founder and CEO Tony Lee said in a statement.

SpartanNash’s efforts to increase its appeal to the independent retailers that comprise a large segment of its revenue base come as it resists efforts by investors to force it to change course.

SpartanNash, which runs 145 supermarkets under several banners in addition to distributing groceries to retailers, has been taking steps to revamp its leadership ranks as part of a multi-year effort to strengthen its business.

Since early 2021, the company has named new chief marketing, legal, supply chain and financial officers, appointments that followed the arrival in 2020 of CEO Tony Sarsem. Earlier in April, SpartanNash brought on two vice presidents to occupy newly established roles in its corporate strategy and information technology departments.