SuperValu (United States)

For companies of the same name in other countries, see SuperValu (disambiguation).

SuperValu Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: SVU) S&P 500 Component
Industry	Grocery
Founded	Minneapolis, Minnesota (1926)
Headquarters	Eden Prairie, Minnesota, U.S.
Area served	United States
Key people	Jeff Noddle, Chairman Craig Herkert CEO
Products	supermarkets, pharmacies, food
Revenue	USD $44.048 Billion (2008)
Operating income	USD $1.684 Billion (2008)
Net income	USD $593 Million (2008)
Total assets	USD $21.062 Billion (2008)
Total equity	USD $5.953 Billion (2008)
Employees	142,000
Website	SuperValu.com SuperValuUniversity.com SupervaluRealty.com DesignServicesGroup.com

SuperValu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is a United States grocery retailer and distributor. The corporation, headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, has been in business for over a century. It is the third-largest food retailing company in the United States (after Kroger and Safeway), and ranks #51 on the Fortune 100 list.

On June 2, 2006, Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, Inc. and 1,124 of its stores were sold to SuperValu. The sale was approved by the shareholders of both SuperValu and Albertsons on May 30, 2006.

Supermarket News ranked SuperValu #1 in the 2008 "Top Wholesalers for 2008".

History

In 1870, Hugh G. Harrison provided the money for B.S. Bull and Company, a dry goods wholesaler serving Minneapolis, Minnesota. Though B.S. Bull and Company was short lived, its founders went on to create a similar company. In 1926, SuperValu's direct ancestor, Winston and Newell Company, was founded from the merger of Winston, Harper and Fisher and the Newell Company, two companies founded by B. S. Bull's backers.

Winston and Newell was a charter member of the Independent Grocers Alliance in 1928, but left IGA in 1942 in favor of forming a "virtual chain" of independently owned stores that operated under the Super Valu and U-Save banners. However, it still serves as a supplier to many IGA stores. This concept proved to be such a success that in 1952, the company changed its name to Super Valu Inc. The name was modified to SuperValu in 1992.

The company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1967, and was the first voluntary group to be listed there.

Acquisitions

In 1971, the discount chain Shopko was acquired by SuperValu, Inc., and was spun-off in 1991 to form a separate, publicly traded company. SuperValu retained a 46% interest in the new company, which Shopko later purchased in 1997.

In 1975, SuperValu acquired Hornbacher's.

In 1980, the company acquired Minnesota-based Cub Foods, which operated five stores in the Twin Cities area. As of 2011, Cub is operating more than 40 stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.

In the early 1990s, SuperValu started acquiring several chains such as Scott's Food & Pharmacy in 1991, Wetterau, Inc. and its holdings Shop 'n Save and Save-A-Lot in 1992, and bigg's in 1994.

In 1999, SuperValu acquired Richfood Holdings for $1.5 billion dollars, adding a mid-atlantic distribution presence and stores including Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, and Metro.

On January 23, 2006, SuperValu announced that it, along with CVS Corporation and a collection of investors led by Cerberus Group, agreed to acquire Albertsons Inc. for $9.7 billion. The acquisition was completed on June 2, 2006.

SuperValu acquired over 2150 stores in the deal including:

• Acme (134 locations)
• Acme Express, Jewel Express, and Albertsons Express (107 fuel centers)
• Albertsons (564 locations)
• Bristol Farms (15 locations) (later sold off)
• Jewel and Jewel-Osco (198 locations)
• Lazy Acres (1 location)
• Max Foods (3 locations) (later rebranded Lucky)
• Osco Pharmacy and Sav-on Pharmacy (906 pharmacies)
• Save-A-Lot (2 locations franchised by Shaw's)
• Shaw's (188 locations)
• Star Market (20 locations) (7 re-branded Shaw's)

Today

Today, SuperValu operates 2,505 food and food/drug combination stores, 878 in-store pharmacies, 117 fuel centers and serves as primary distributor to an additional 2,200 stores.

SuperValu also supplies a network of independent retailers (often found in smaller cities) that sometimes use the SuperValu name. However, these stores are not owned by the company. SuperValu also franchises the Cub Foods and o-A-Lot brand to independent retailers.

Recently, former Walmart executive Craig Herkert took over for Jeff Noddle as CEO of SuperValu.

On January 6, 2011, SuperValu announced it would close 20 underperforming stores on the East and West coasts as it attempts to save money by allowing corporate and office employees to take unpaid time off. The company, despite being profitable, is facing financial problems due to a weak economy, tight margins, falling revenue and asset values.^{[citation needed]} On January 11, 2011, SuperValu has reported a loss of $202 million for the quarter, and revenue also fell 6% to $8.67 billion. Stock prices fell 12 percent to $7.52 per share. The company operates on a strategy of effective and efficient food distribution. The Company conducts its Retail food operations through a total of 2,349 retail food stores and are supplied by 23 dedicated distribution centers and 9 distribution centers.

In September, 2011, SuperValu announced the sale of all but 27 of its fuel centers to several convenience store chains, including Tesoro, Holiday StationStores, Couche-Tard (which operates Circle K Stores), and Stinker Stores. The company announced that it was seeking buyers for the remaining fuel centers as well.

Overview

As a supplier to IGA stores for over 80 years, SuperValu necessarily has formed close relationships with these family-owned grocery businesses, some of which have had relationships with the corporation for over two or three generations. But Walmart's newly arrived grocery competition to these stores also affects SuperValu, Inc. In addition, SuperValu is selling its Shop 'n Save stores in the Pittsburgh market as a result of being unable to compete with Walmart and fast-growing local chain Giant Eagle. Most will be sold to independent owners, and continue to operate under the Shop 'n Save banner. SuperValu will continue to supply all area FoodLand, Save-A-Lot and the independent Shop 'n Save locations of western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia.

SuperValu enjoys economies of scale when dealing with the well-known national food firms like Kraft Foods, General Mills, Kellogg's, the beer manufacturers, meat suppliers, produce suppliers and dairy suppliers, as well as the health and beauty product suppliers, by purchasing in bulk and then distributing the goods by Direct Store Delivery from its distribution centers, which are located nationwide.

The ethnic foods market is an emerging sector and remains a challenge for this business, as well as the natural and organic foods sector, as there are no clear market leaders for the corporation to deal with in these sectors. It remains to be seen whether SuperValu's tradition of dealing with small grocery businesses can be extended to these emerging markets.

SuperValu brands include:

"Arctic Shores," "Baby Basics," "Carlita," "Culinary Circle," "Equaline," "Farm Fresh," "Farm Stand," "Flavorite," "WholeCare Pet," "Homelife," "Java Delight," "Max Velocity," "NutriPlan," "Richfood," "Shoppers Value," "Stockman & Dakota," "Stone Ridge Creamery," "SuperChill," "SuperCrunch," and "Wild Harvest"

SuperValu also owns two third-party logistics firms, Advantage Logistics and Total Logistic Control. In 2005, SuperValu launched a specialty produce company, W. Newell & Company which is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois.

Market share

As of 2006, SuperValu has a leading market share position in several markets where it has operations.

First

• Philadelphia, PA-NJ (Acme)
• Minneapolis-St.Paul, MN (Cub Foods)
• Fargo, ND (Hornbacher's)
• Chicago, IL (Jewel, Jewel-Osco)
• Billings, MT (Albertsons)
• Nampa/Boise, ID (Albertsons)
• Las Vegas, NV (Albertsons)
• Orange County, CA (Albertsons)

Second

• Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA (Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy)
• Boston, MA-NH-ME (Shaw's and Star Market)
• Spokane, WA (Albertsons)
• St. Louis, MO (Shop 'n Save)
• Riverside-San Bernardino, CA (Albertsons)
• San Diego, CA (Albertsons)
• Ventura, CA (Albertsons)
• Duluth, MN/Superior, WI (Cub Foods)

Third

• Pittsburgh, PA (Shop 'n Save)
• Seattle-Bellevue-Everett/Tacoma, WA (Albertsons)
• Washington, D.C./Baltimore, MD (Shoppers)
• Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (Albertsons)

Chains

The company operates under multiple retail banners, or chains:

• Acme Markets 117 locations (DE, Northern MD, NJ, Eastern PA)
• Albertsons 453 locations (Southern CA, ID, MT, ND, NV, OR, UT, WA and WY)
• Cub Foods 73 locations of which 31 are franchised (Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, WI, OH, and IA.)
• Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy 44 locations (Norfolk/Virginia Beach and Richmond, VA, plus Elizabeth City, NC)
  • The Market 2 locations (Norfolk and Richmond, VA)
• Hornbacher's 6 locations (Fargo-Moorhead, ND/MN)
• Jewel-Osco 182 locations in IL, eastern IA, northwestern IN and southeastern WI)
• Lucky Stores 5 locations (Las Vegas and Southern CA)
• Osco Pharmacy and Sav-on Pharmacy 722 pharmacies (Nationwide)
• Save-A-Lot 1250 locations of which 860 are franchised (Nationwide)
• Shaw's and Star Market 169 locations (MA, ME, NH, RI and VT)
• Shop 'n Save 42 locations (St. Louis, MO, Southern IL and Springfield, IL) not to be confused with the Pittsburgh-area Shop 'n Save stores
• Shoppers Food & Pharmacy 56 locations (Washingoton, DC, Baltimore, MD and Northern VA)
• SuperValu Pharmacies 109 pharmacies (Nationwide)

Former chains

• Bigg's Hypermarket (Cincinnati, OH, Clarksville, IN, and Florence, KY) Locations sold to Remke Markets in 2010
• Bristol Farms (Southern CA) Spun-off in 2010
• '"Albertsons Express"', '"Jewel Express"', etc. fuel centers and convenience stores - sold in 2011
• Lazy Acres 1 location (Santa Barbara, CA)
• Max Foods (Southern CA) Locations rebranded Lucky
• Scott's Food & Pharmacy (Fort Wayne, IN and Northeastern IN) Sold to The Kroger Co. in 2007
• ShopKo Stores Spun-off in 1991, remaining interest sold in 1997
• Sunflower Market (Indianapolis) Five locations closed in 2008
• Twin Valu (Ohio) Hypermarket concept, closed in 1996

Product labels

Many of the banners have "private labels".

These are the current active private label brands for SuperValu:

• Acme - Store generic brand
• Albertsons - Store generic brand
• Arctic Shores - Seafood products.
• Baby Basics - Baby products
• Carlita - Hispanic foods
• Cub - Store generic brand
• Culinary Circle - Restaurant quality food
• Essential Everyday - Store generic brand
• Equaline - Pharmacy generic products
• Farm Fresh - Store generic brand
• Farm Stand - Produce
• Flavorite - introduced by store 178 in year 1997, the focus of this label is low cost soda.
• Happy Tails (now Whole Care Pet) - Line of pet foods.
• Heritage - Liquors
• HomeLife - In home non-food products
• Java Delight - SuperValu’s own brand of coffee, is sourced from Distant Lands Coffee
• Jewel - Store generic brand
• Max Velocity - Energy Drinks
• NutriPlan - Pet Foods
• Richfood - Store generic brand
• Shaw's - Store generic brand
• Shoppers Value - Extreme value generic brand
• Stockman & Dakota - Premium beef
• Stone Ridge Creamery - Ice cream, frozen yogurt and sherbet
• SuperChill - Soft Drinks and New Age Beverages
• SuperCrunch - Snack Foods
• Village Market
• Wild Harvest Organic Foods - Natural and organic products

Some of the older inactive private label brands are: Sav-on Osco by Albertsons · Good Day · A+ · Master's Choice · Janet Lee · Lady Lee · President's Choice · Hillfarm · Economy Buy · Home Best · Essensia · Chateau . Quality Plus . Elf

Culture

Diversity

SuperValu received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2008.

SuperValu sponsors employee resource groups globally for black, GLBT, Latino, young, handicapped, and other minorities.

Environment

Cub Foods and its parent company, SuperValu, was the first grocer in Minnesota to be awarded LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold NC2.2 Certification for one of its stores. The Cub store, located in the Phalen neighborhood of St. Paul, is one of just three grocery stores in the nation to successfully achieve LEED Gold Certification.

Albertsons was the first major retailer to earn a LEED Certification on their remodeled La Habra store. It features water saving faucets, over 40 skylights, "Night" curtains over open cold cases and LED lighting.

In August 2009, SuperValu was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for achieving their emissions target.

See also

• Grocer
• List of supermarket chains in the United States
• List of S&P 500 companies
• List of companies based in Minneapolis-St. Paul
• George R. Newell House (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

External links

• SuperValu and a SuperValu History
• SuperValu store brands
• SuperValu 2008 Annual Report
• Most recent Quarter Results.Oliver, David (2008-07-22). "SUPERVALU Reports Record First Quarter Fiscal 2009 Earnings". BUSINESS WIRE. http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=93272&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1177508&highlight=. Retrieved 2008-10-02. 
• Supermarket News:SuperValu Profile
• Craig Herkert Forbes Profile