CINCINNATI -- The Kroger Co. has forged a service agreement with convenience-store, grocery and foodservice distributor McLane Co. Inc. covering its 787 c-stores in 18 states.
“We look forward to our partnership with McLane and the company’s ability to support our continued focus on the products that matter most to our customers,” said Jeff Parker, Kroger's president of convenience stores.
“Kroger continues to raise the bar in terms of product and foodservice offerings, convenient locations and customer satisfaction. We look forward to seeing explosive growth and success as the company capitalizes on the many customer-centric offerings that set McLane apart from the competition. Whether it is the centralized control of our procurement and operations that provide our customers superior service and consistency of performance and product offerings regardless of location, to taking advantage of our best-in-class technology to assist in reducing cost and driving efficiency at retail,” said Tony Frankenberger, president of McLane Grocery.
Earlier this week, c-store distributor Core-Mark Holding Co. Inc. announced the expiration of its supply agreement with Kroger Convenience effective April 2017. The expiring agreement with South San Francisco, Calif.-based Core-Mark covers approximately 680 stores.
"We are proud of our successful partnership with Kroger Convenience, and despite the non-renewal, we are excited about our underlying momentum in the marketplace," said Thomas B. Perkins, president and CEO of Core-Mark. "We ended 2016 with approximately 2,900 net new locations added in the calendar year excluding our acquisition of Pine State. In 2017 we are looking forward to launching service under our new agreement with Walmart covering 530 locations, as well as other opportunities to capture additional market share."
Temple, Texas-based McLane provides grocery and foodservice supply-chain solutions for c-stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants throughout the United States. Through McLane Grocery and McLane Foodservice, the company operates 70 distribution centers across the United States. It buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 different consumer products to nearly 90,000 U.S. locations. McLane provides alcohol-beverage distribution through its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire Distributors Inc. McLane is a wholly owned unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
Based in Cincinnati, Kroger owns approximately 3,000 supermarkets, about 1,425 with fuel centers, under a variety of banners in 35 states and the District of Columbia. It also owns nearly 800 convenience stores, about 725 with fuel, under banners including Kwik Shop, Loaf N’ Jug, Quik Stop Markets, Tom Thumb Food Stores, Turkey Hill Minit Markets and Smith’s Express.
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