Asked whether the strength on the distribution side of its business might prompt it to pay less attention to its weaker retail business, Eidson said, “That’s not our perspective at the moment. Retail accounts for 28% of the revenue stream, and it’s at the core of what we do.
Dennis Eidson
Dennis Eidson
“We use retail not only as a delivery [tool for] sales and profit but also to help us be better distributors and wholesalers. We use retail as a bit of a test tube, aggressively inviting independent customers to come look at our retail stores, to show them what we are doing, what is working and what isn’t working.
“We believe having a hands-on attitude and walking in the retailers’ shoes really adds to our value and resonates with certain customers very strongly. There is a certain synergy in that that we like very much.”
As part of its commitment to its retail operations, the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based company plans to remodel and re-banner eight Family Fare stores in the Omaha, Neb., market this year, Eidson said. “Omaha is a tough marketplace with a lot of competitive impacts over the last couple of years, and we’re working hard to upgrade the facilities there in what was a very under-capitalized marketplace for the company,” he explained.
Stores in Omaha that were upgraded last year are experiencing double-digit comparable sales since the improvements, he said, “and we’re looking for even more than that,” he added.
Eidson said the company has “a nice solid foundation” beneath it to add new customers to its distribution base, citing the addition earlier this month of Gordy’s Markets, a 21-store operator based in Chippewa Falls, Wis.
“Gordy’s is a growth-oriented retailer and operates in a strategic market for us, and their trust in us reinforces our value to independent customers and our ability to help them grow and optimize their businesses,” Eidson said.
SpartanNash began supplying private brands to Gordy’s earlier this month and plans to completely replace Supervalu as the company's primary wholesaler by mid-May, Eidson noted. 
He said SpartanNash anticipates growing sales from other, less traditional businesses, including Amazon Prime, to which it supplies products to fulfillment centers in 29 geographies.
SpartanNash has also begun testing distribution of fresh products to military commissaries, he noted. While that effort is still in test mode, “we are very optimistic that’s going to end in a good place,” Eidson said.

“We are also excited to look at several other opportunities to grow sales with other non-traditional customers, and we think there are plenty of opportunities aside from the core that we can avail ourselves of, so we are feeling more optimistic going forward, to be sure," he added.
In response to another question, Eidson said SpartanNash intends to seek acquisitions. “We are positioned to potentially roll up what is a pretty fragmented distribution business right now, and maybe the low-growth environment today is an even better one [for acquisitions] than it has been in the last couple of years.
“With tonnage at grocery stores across the country flat to maybe slightly negative, people are looking for ways to improve bottom-line performance, and I think mergers and acquisitions is potentially one of those area where you can do that.”