United Natural Foods Inc. has completed its purchase of Supervalu following a vote by Supervalu shareholders to approve the deal.
UNFI chairman and CEO Steve Spinner will lead the combined company, with his reports including Chris Testa as president of UNFI and Sean Griffin as CEO of Supervalu, according to a news release. Griffin was previously UNFI’s chief operating officer, and he is leading the integration committee as the businesses come together.
“We are excited to continue to further build out the store to a more diverse customer base across the country, with both broad better-for-you natural, organic brands and fresh perimeter offerings, as we capitalize on opportunities to cross-sell and realize the benefits of the greater scale we now have as a combined company,” Griffin said in the release. “Work has already begun for the company to realize the significant projected run-rate cost synergies associated with this transaction — more than $175 million by year three and more than $185 million by year four — and we are committed to improving profitability into the future.
“We believe that we can achieve these targets and leverage scalable systems to streamline our processes, more efficiently meet the needs of our customers and reduce future capital expenditures,” Griffin said. “We look forward to providing an update on our integration efforts at our January 16, 2019, investor day.”