Stop & Shop Aims to Strengthen Minority-Owned Businesses
Stop & Shop is spending $55,000 to strengthen New England's minority-owned businesses, with a special focus on Black-owned businesses.
The Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council (GNEMSDC) has received a $50,000 investment from Stop & Shop Supermarkets, and an additional $5,000 from the Stop & Shop NextGen Associate Resource Group, a team of Millennial and Gen Z Stop & Shop associates dedicated to economic inclusion.
GNEMSDC's Development Program focuses on companies certified as a minority business enterprise (MBE) by GNEMSDC. Stop & Shop funding will support this program through one-on-one business consulting tailored to the size and sophistication of each minority business enterprise, along with helping to build sustainable businesses with a specific focus on financial management, operational and process improvements, strategic planning and marketing.
"This investment by Stop & Shop and its NextGen Associate Resource Group will allow us to continue to build an even more effective Development Program to make more of New England's minority businesses stronger," said Peter Hurst, president and CEO of GNEMSDC. "Minority business development helps reduce the country's racial wealth gap, and our MBE Development Program will continue to contribute to the health and growth of our current and future MBEs. COVID-19's adverse impact on minority-owned businesses requires a laser-like focus on the levers that drive MBEs' success, including access to contracts with buyers in the private sector and the public sector; access to intellectual capital that allows MBEs' owners to be more effective leaders and managers; and access to financial capital that supports their growth, whether one contract at a time or through mergers and acquisitions."
With this investment from Stop & Shop and the NextGen group, GNEMSDC will expand the scope of its Development Program beyond just the existing 250 certified MBEs in New England. The expansion will include providing support to Black-owned businesses through integration into Stop & Shop's supply chain in its retail stores and home delivery services throughout New England and the Northeast.
"Stop & Shop is committed to supporting to the communities where our associates and customers work and live," shared Gordon Reid, president of Stop & Shop. "We hope this investment to GNEMSDC serves as a building block for Black-owned businesses, allowing them to grow, develop and flourish."
Operating from offices in Boston and New Haven, Connecticut, GNEMSDC promotes economic inclusion and minority business development. The 250 minority businesses certified by GNEMSDC have aggregate revenue of $2.7 billion and more than 20,000 employees (65% of whom are ethnic minorities).
Stop & Shop employs nearly 60,000 associates and operates more than 400 stores in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey. Parent company Ahold Delhaize USA is No. 4 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.
