The Produce Reporter Week in Review June 27, 2025  

It was a week of some major merger and acquisition announcements. 

The week started with a bang as C&S Wholesale Grocers and SpartanNash Company announced merger plans where C&S will acquire SpartanNash for a total of $1.77 billion, including assumed net debt.

Both grocery wholesale suppliers are among the largest in the country, and they said the combined company will operate nearly 60 complementary distribution centers covering the U.S. and serve about 10,000 independent retail locations, including more than 200 corporate-run grocery stores. 

They will need regulatory approval, a task that Kroger and Albertsons were not able to overcome. C&S planned to buy nearly 600 stores in that deal to overcome antitrust issues. 

While this is a massive deal, it involves the independent grocery space, which struggles to compete with the larger American grocery chains according to its association, the National Grocers Association, which continues to lobby Congress to enforce U.S. antitrust laws.

To give some perspective, Walmart’s 2025 fiscal year revenue is $681 billion with more than half of that in grocery. It operates more than 10,000 locations worldwide, with about 4,600 in the U.S. and 600 Sam’s Clubs in the U.S. 

Kroger posted $147 billion in sales in 2024 and operates about 2,700 stores in the U.S. 

Additionally, retailers such as Aldi, Lidl, Costco, and Amazon also exceed $100 billion per year in sales. 

As far as antitrust and monopoly concerns go, the proposed C&S-SpartanNash merger should not trouble the Federal Trade Commission compared to the Kroger-Albertsons failed deal. 

GrubMarket acquires 

Also, this week, GrubMarket completed the acquisition of San Diego-based Coast Citrus Distributors, a national distributor of tropical fruits including mangos; specialty root vegetables; chili peppers; limes; and a wide variety of other produce items sourced from Mexico, Central America, South America, the Caribbean, as well as the U.S.

Mike Xu, CEO of GrubMarket, said: “This acquisition is, so far, the largest acquisition in the history of GrubMarket. Coast Citrus Distributors perfectly complements our business and aligns with our plans for strategic growth across North America.” 

As is GrubMarket’s strategy with acquisitions, it said Coast will continue to be run by its current leadership team.