LOS ANGELES, Nov. 21, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Unified Grocers(1) announced today that it has been approved for membership in the IGA Alliance. IGA is the world's largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $21 billion per year.
Membership in the IGA Alliance gives Unified the right to supply groceries and grocery products to independent retail stores bearing the IGA banner in Unified's marketing territory as well as the right to offer the IGA banner (including signage and other branding materials) to retailers wishing to join the IGA banner. Unified supplies approximately 2,800 independently-owned grocery stores in Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Arizona, Alaska and Hawaii and also ships grocery products to retail businesses in Mexico and the Pacific Rim.
"Becoming a member of IGA provides us with a tremendous opportunity," said Dan Murphy, senior vice president, perishables and retail services, Unified Grocers. "We believe that there are a number of independent retailers throughout our marketing territory that would like to become IGA stores. There is a lot of marketplace power that comes with the IGA name and banner and we believe this will be an attractive opportunity for many of our member retailers."
Mark Batenic, chief executive officer, IGA, agreed that Unified's membership will help expand the IGA banner. "Unified is a trusted name in the industry for its long-standing support of the independent retailer. As a full-service, retailer-owned wholesaler, Unified understands success is built on delivering the goods and services independents need to succeed in this competitive marketplace. We are grateful for the expanded store presence and distribution that Unified brings to our organization."
About Unified Grocers, Inc.
Founded in 1922, Unified Grocers, Inc. is a retailer-owned wholesale grocery distributor that supplies independent retailers throughout the Western United States. Unified and its subsidiaries, which generated approximately $4 billion in sales during 2007, offer independent retailers all the resources they need to compete in the supermarket industry.
The Unified Grocers, Inc. logo is available at http://www.primenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=1214
About IGA
IGA is the world's largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $21 billion per year. The Alliance includes nearly 4,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 36 distribution companies and more than 55 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA has operations in 44 of the United States and more than 40 countries, commonwealths and territories on all six inhabited continents.
(1) As part of an initiative to strengthen its corporate brand and image in the marketplace, Unified Western Grocers recently changed its name and is now doing business as "Unified Grocers." The Company has begun to utilize Unified Grocers as its business name for nearly all purposes and expects to effectuate a legal name change after approval by its shareholders at Unified's next annual meeting in mid-February, 2008.
This press release contains forward-looking statements with respect to benefits expected to be derived from the proposed acquisition. There are a variety of factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated by the statements above. These factors are outlined in Unified's Form 10-Q and other interim reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Furthermore, Unified undertakes no obligation to update, amend or clarify forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.