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.

As of June 2, 2006, Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons, Inc. and 1124 of its family of stores have become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Supervalu. The sale was approved by the shareholders of both Supervalu and Albertsons on May 30, 2006.

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 similar company. In 1926, Hugh G. Harrison formed Winston and Newell Company which went on to be Supervalu Inc.

Acquisitions

In 1971, a discount department store chain ShopKo was acquired by Supervalu Inc., only to be sold off in 1991.

In 1980, the company acquires Minnesota-based Cub Foods, which operates five stores in the Twin Cities area. By 2004, Cub operates more than 100 stores in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and Illinois.

In the next few years, Supervalu acquired stores such as Scott's Foods in 1991, Shop 'n Save and Save-A-Lot in 1992, bigg's in 1994 and Virginia's Farm Fresh and Shoppers Food in 1999.

On January 23, 2006, Supervalu announced that it, along with a collection of investors including CVS/pharmacy, Kimco Reality, and Cerberus Group had agreed to acquire Albertsons Inc. for 9.7 billion dollars. 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 (11 locations)
• Jewel and Jewel-Osco (198 locations)
• Lazy Acres (1 location)
• Max Foods (3 locations)
• 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)
• Super Saver Foods (1 location)

Overview

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.

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, HomeBest, 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.