Public | |
Traded as |
NASDAQ: SPTN S&P 600 Component |
Industry | Retail (Grocery) |
Founded | 1917 |
Headquarters | Byron Center, Michigan |
Key people
|
Dennis Eidson, President and CEO |
Products | Private label grocery brands, Distributor, Grocery Store Management and Operation |
Website | www |
Dennis Eidson, President and CEO
Craig Sturken, Executive Chairman
SpartanNash is an American food distributor and grocery store retailer headquartered in Byron Center, Michigan. In terms of revenue, it is the largest food distributor serving military commissaries and exchanges in the United States. The Company’s core businesses include distributing food to military commissaries, independent grocers, and corporate-owned retail stores in 44 states, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. SpartanNash operates 167 retail stores.
The chain was founded in 1917 as the Grand Rapids Wholesale Grocery Company and assumed the Spartan Stores name in 1957. For most of its history, Spartan was a cooperative. Spartan changed to for profit in the 1970s and was first traded on the NASDAQ in August 2000.
In 2005, Spartan Stores, Inc. entered into a purchase agreement to acquire certain operating assets of D&W Food Centers, Inc.
In 2013, Spartan Stores and Nash Finch merged and formed SpartanNash company. The official name change was to occur May 2014 but a new site with the official new name and logo opened in November 2013. Under terms of the $1.3 billion deal, each Nash share would convert to 1.2 shares of Spartan Stock. Spartan retained 57.7% of the combined company while Nash owns 42.3% of the approximately 38 million outstanding stock shares. Integration and transaction closing-related costs of approximately $17 million to $18 million will be recorded in the quarter ending December 28, 2013.
In March 2017. it was announced that David Staples will replace Dennis Edison as Chief Executive Officer of SpartanNash. Edison will continue as the chairman of the company's board of directors after he retires as CEO in late May.
Spartan's retail operations started as independent grocery chains. However, in 1999, it bought the Family Fare, Great Day, Glen's, Ashcraft's, and Prevo's supermarket chains from their respective owners. To simplify advertising, the brands were consolidated into two: Family Fare in the south and Glen's in the north, each being the majority in its respective region.
In 2000, Spartan Stores merged with the Seaway Foodtown company whose operations included 47 Food Town Supermarkets and 26 The Pharm deep-discount drugstores. After the merger, the Food Town stores operated under their own banners, but heavy competition in areas where Food Town and The Pharm operated meant lower profits, and these stores negatively impacted the company's resources. Between 2000 and 2003, the company closed or sold eight Food Town Supermarkets and five The Pharm drugstores. In 2003, with an unmanageable debt load, Spartan Stores announced it would sell or close the 39 remaining Food Town stores and restructure the company.