UNFI Appoints Leader of Fulfillment Network for North America
To support the current and future needs of its fulfillment network, United Natural Foods Inc., (UNFI) has appointed Mark Bushway its new chief supply chain officer effective Jan. 3, 2022. Bushway, who is currently president of UNFI’s Atlantic region, will take on leadership of the company’s fulfillment network across North America, consisting of 56 distribution centers serving more than 30,000 customer locations.
Bushway’s immediate focus will be on UNFI’s existing fulfillment network strategy, while continuing to build out cross-selling capabilities, identifying distribution center expansions, and accelerating network optimization and automation initiatives. He’ll also continue working closely with his peers in UNFI’s sales organization to ensure that customer insights and feedback are considered in all fulfillment network day-to- day activities. Bushway will report to Eric Dorne, UNFI’s COO.
"Mark is a terrific fit to lead our fulfillment network,” said Dorne. “Having led our Atlantic region for the past three years, he fully understands the evolving needs of our customers and will bring his experience and expertise to bear in support of their unique needs today and in the future. Most importantly, he knows our culture and how critical it is that we take care of our people, continuing all our initiatives to help position UNFI as an employer of choice across North America.”
Prior to leading UNFI’s Atlantic region, Bushway spent the previous eight years as VP of distribution for the region, in which role he was responsible for all operational and financial performance at eight distribution centers. Bushway was also director of real estate and construction, as well as holding operations roles during his 18-year tenure with UNFI. Prior to UNFI, Bushway spent 14 years in leadership positions of increasing responsibility for C&S Wholesale Grocers.
According to UNFI’s website, the company also has an SVP of supply chain strategy. Michael J. Seekins has held this role since August 2016. Seekins was UNFI’s VP of supply chain from August 2015 to August 2016, and VP of transportation and logistics from October 2014 to August 2015.
In other executive moves, UNFI recently promoted Bob Garibaldi to the role of president, Pacific region, succeeding Steve Dietz, who has become chief customer officer. In his new position, Garibaldi will lead UNFI’s Pacific region sales team, with full accountability to support customers with the wholesaler’s full portfolio of comprehensive products and services. Before this promotion, Garibaldi had been UNFI’s SVP of sales, Pacific region since 2018.
For its first quarter ended Oct. 30, UNFI reported that sales in its supernatural channel increased 13.5% to $1.4 billion, offsetting slower rates of growth in other parts of the business. The supernatural channel’s double-digit gain in the first quarter is an acceleration from the channel’s 11.8% increase in UNFI’s fourth quarter ended July 31. Sales in UNFI’s chain and independent retailer segments advanced 1.8% and 4.7%, respectively, in the company’s first quarter.
Providence, R.I.-based UNFI delivers a wide variety of products to customer locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, e-commerce retailers and foodservice customers. The largest publicly traded grocery distributor in America, the company is No. 47 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer's 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Keene, N.H.-based C&S is No. 16 on The PG 100.
