Dive Brief:
- Associated Wholesalers Inc. (AWI), a cooperative that provides distribution and other services to retailers, says it is considering offers from unnamed suitors to buy the company.
- AWI had earlier announced it wanted to sell its White Rose division, which serves retailers such as Fairway and Pioneer in the Northeast.
- The fate of the company has been subject to considerable speculation, as news reports and rumors have suggested that AWI, and not just White Rose, was attracting buyer interest.
Dive Insight:
Well, it's impossible to say with any certainty who the potential buyer of AWI and White Rose might be. There's a slew of private equity firms, for example, who might buy the companies based on cash flow. But there's also the possibility that a strategic buyer would emerge. A likely choice there would be Supervalu, which has said it wants to move deeper into wholesaling.