UNFI to Sell Cub Foods by 2020

United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI) said that it’s making progress on efforts to divest former Supervalu Inc. supermarket chains Cub Foods and Shoppers.

Specifically, the company said during its Q4 earnings call last week that its Cub Foods banner will probably will be sold sometime by the end of the next fiscal year.

"We're working diligently to divest both Shoppers and Cub, and have advisers fully engaged to push this forward," CEO Steven Spinner said. Of Cub, he noted: "We are ... in a process and expect to have something to announce early in calendar year 2020." 

UNFI bought Supervalu Inc. in 2018 for $2.9 billion.

Cub Foods is the largest grocery chain in the Minneapolis area, and in recent years has invested in remodels of its store footprint.

Providence, R.I.-based UNFI delivers products to customer locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, ecommerce retailers and foodservice customers. Combined with Supervalu, UNFI is the largest publicly traded grocery distributor in the United States, and is No. 30 on Progressive Grocer’s 2019 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.