A lot of things have changed in the last eight decades, but the mission of Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc. isn’t one of them.
The company was founded in 1926 after a group of 20 grocers began meeting in Kansas City to combine forces in an effort to get better prices on goods and compete more effectively with national grocery chains. And that’s still how the company helps the grocers it serves.
“That’s our mission in life, to keep them competitive in a very competitive industry,” says Tim Bellanti, senior vice president/division manager of the Springfield AWG distribution center.
“We’ve always been known in the grocery industry as living off of a 1 percent net profit or 2 percent net profit at best ... so we have to go on volume. We have to watch our expenses. We have to buy product at the best possible cost.”
The Springfield distribution plant, which opened in 1938, ships more than $1 billion worth of groceries to its member stores annually.
“We ship probably 800,000 cases a week out of this facility to roughly 350 grocery stores,” Bellanti says.
In 2011, Kansas City-based AWG posted companywide net sales of $7.76 billion.
Through the years, acquisitions have expanded AWG’s footprint. In 2003, the company purchased five divisions of now-defunct Fleming Cos. Inc., and most recently picked up Affiliated Foods in Little Rock, Ark., after it filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
Changing consumer demands have increased the diversity of AWG’s footprint, Bellanti says.
In addition to well-known brands Always Save and Best Choice, AWG has developed an organic food line, Clearly Organic, and a specialty food line, Superior Selections.
“I think one thing that is critically important to keep in mind is that the food issues in society today, the obesity issue, the tendency to buy organic foods ... there’s a changing product mix, and as an organization it’s our responsibility to change and adapt and lead the way on those changes,” Bellanti says, noting that Superior Selections now comprises more than 20 percent of the company’s total volume.
Bellanti said value is always top of mind with consumers, regardless of household income.
“Every single person likes a good value,” he says. “Again, it’s one of those trends in the consuming public that people are less loyal to a national brand and more loyal to value for their families. They want what tastes the best for the price they want to spend.”
In addition to putting food on grocers’ shelves, providing 575 jobs and enlisting services of other businesses to keep operations in motion, Bellanti says the local AWG operation also gives generously to fight hunger in the Ozarks.
“We provided more than a million and a half pounds of food to the Ozarks Food Harvest in the past year, and they, in turn, provided more than a million meals to those less fortunate,” he adds.
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