Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu Inc.’s net gain of 52% in wholesale sales was overshadowed by the company’s 4.1% drop in retail sales, a drop of 3.5% in same store sales for the third quarter of 2018.
The increase in wholesale business was primarily attributed to the completion of the company’s acquisition of Unified Grocers. Supervalu acquired another wholesaler, Associated Grocers of Florida, early in the fourth quarter, as part of its focus on growing that side of the business.
“In addition to these recent acquisitions, we continue to achieve strong underlying growth in our wholesale business,” said president and CEO Mark Gross, in a news release. “With the influx of significant new business in certain distribution centers, we experienced a larger-than-anticipated increase in expenses, but we’re encouraged by the work we are doing to address those costs and believe they are manageable going forward.”