SuperValu

SuperValu Inc.

Type	Public (NYSE: SVU)
Founded	1870 (Minneapolis, Minnesota)
Headquarters	Eden Prairie, Minnesota
Area served	United States
Key people	Jeff Noddle, Chairman Craig Herkert CEO, Mike Jackson, President & COO Pamela Knous, CFO
Industry	Retail (Grocery)
Products	Grocery stores, 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	192,000[1]
Website	www.supervalu.com www.supervaluuniversity.com www.supervalurealty.com www.designservicesgroup.com

SuperValu Inc. (NYSE: SVU) is a United States grocery retailer and distributor. The corporation is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and has been in business for over a century. It is the third-largest food retailing company in the United States and ranks #51 on the Fortune 100 list.^[2]

As of June 2, 2006, Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, Inc. and 1,124 of its stores have been 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".^[3]

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, Hugh G. Harrison formed Winston and Newell Company which went on to become SuperValu Inc.

Acquisitions

In 1971, the discount department store 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 1980, the company acquired Minnesota-based Cub Foods, which operated five stores in the Twin Cities area. As of 2004, Cub was operating more than 100 stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.

In the next few years, SuperValu acquired stores such as Scott's Food & Pharmacy in 1991, 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 Warehouse, and Metro.

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

SuperValu acquired over 1100 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)
• 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 stores 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 Save-A-Lot brand to independent retailers.

Recently, former Wal-Mart executive Craig Herkert took over for Jeff Noddle as CEO of SUPERVALU.^[4]

Overview

As a supplier to IGA (Independent Grocers Alliance) supermarkets, 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 Wal-Mart'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 Wal-Mart 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 Foods, General Mills, 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 private-label brands include "Flavorite", "Shoppers Value", "Home Life", and "Richfood".

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, Bristol Farms)

Second:

• Cincinnati, OH (bigg's)
• Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA (Farm Fresh Food & Pharmacy)
• Boston, MA-NH-ME (Shaw's and Star Market)
• Spokane, WA (Albertsons)
• Salt Lake City/Ogden, UT (Albertsons)
• St. Louis, MO (Shop 'n Save)
• Riverside-San Bernardino, CA (Albertsons, Bristol Farms)
• San Diego, CA (Albertsons, Bristol Farms)
• Ventura, CA (Albertsons, Bristol Farms)
• 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, Bristol Farms)

Chains

The company operates under multiple retail banners, or chains:

Product labels

Many of the banners have "private labels".

These are the current active private label brands for SuperValu:

Some of the older inactive private label brands are: SavOn Osco by Albertsons · Good Day · A+ · Master's Choice · Janet Lee · Lady Lee · President's Choice · Hillfarm · Econo Buy · Home Best · Essensia

Culture

Diversity

SuperValu received a 100% rating on the Corporate Equality Index released by the Human Rights Campaign starting in 2008.^[5]

SuperValu sponsors employee resource groups globally for black, GLBT, Latino, young, handicapped, and other minorities. ^[6]

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.^[7]

Albertsons was the first major retailer to earn a LEED Certification on their remodeled La Habra store.^[8] It features water saving faucets, over 40 skylights, "Night" curtains over open cold cases and LED lighting.

In August of 2009, SuperValu was recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for achieving their emissions target.^[9]

See also

Companies portal

Business and economics portal

• 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

References

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" (html). 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