Latest news with #Sarsam
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
SpartanNash's retail sales continue to drive positive results
Dive Brief: SpartanNash's first quarter net sales grew 3.7% during the first quarter of fiscal 2025, to $2.9 billion, with strong retail sales growth offsetting lower volumes in the company's wholesale segment, CFO and Executive Vice President Jason Monaco told investors Thursday morning. The company's retail net sales increased nearly 20% to just over $947 million, driven by incremental sales from acquired stores. Wholesale net sales dropped nearly 3% to just shy of $2 billion. SpartanNash plans to lean into its strong retail performance as it moves forward with growth initiatives, executives told investors. Dive Insight: SpartanNash's first-quarter results mark the fifth consecutive quarter that the grocery solutions company reported an increase in retail sales and the second consecutive quarter that its wholesale sales have dropped. Retail performance was primarily driven by SpartanNash's recent acquisitions as well as a 1.6% increase in comparable-store sales. SpartanNash CEO Tony Sarsam noted that the segment was "up against a tough backdrop" due to an ice storm in late March that impacted nearly 10% of the company's stores for multiple days in its "core market," implying that retail sales could have boomed even more if not for the adverse weather. The next phase of SpartanNash's ongoing strategic plan will put more focus on its retail business. Sarsam noted that the company has already begun onboarding retail-focused executives - like Matt Plum - and said the company will focus on improving the shopper experience with offerings that balance value, low prices and a differentiated offering. SpartanNash plans to continue investing in its retail segment through three growth platforms: expanding capital deployment into "slight conventional and up-market store remodels;" leaning into the convenience store sector; and growing in the Hispanic foods market by expanding its ethnic store footprint, Sarsam said. In late October, SpartanNash acquired three Michigan-based convenience store operator Markham Enterprises. At the time of that acquisition, SpartanNash operated 36 c-stores. Earlier this month, SpartanNash opened its fourth Supermercado Nuestra Familia in Omaha, Nebraska, and plans to open two or three more stores under the banner in the Midwest later this year as well as one or two in the first quarter of 2026, according to Sarsam. During Q1, the company made progress with its "margin-enhancing initiatives," which include supply chain and merchandising transformation, marketing innovation work and its go-to-market plan, Monaco said on the earnings call. The company recently launched a cost leadership program, which will includetapping into its scale to offer more procurement benefits, implementing automated solutions in distribution centers, and establishing new retail processes that are more time-efficient and labor-effective, Sarsam said. "The [cost leadership] program is expected to deliver $50 million of annual benefits with in-year gains this year of approximately $20 million. The program enables us to invest in growth and expand margins, all while offsetting industry headwinds," according to Sarsam. The company reaffirmed its 2025 guidance because "despite the macro environment, our results to date, as well as our expectations for growth programs, give us confidence that we will achieve the 2025 targets we laid out in February," Sarsam said. SpartanNash currently operates nearly 200 grocery stores across 10 states and distributes groceries to more than 2,300 independent retail locations. The company's banners include Family Fare, Martin's Super Markets and D&W Fresh Market. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved.
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Semafor World Economy Summit: Views from policymakers and CEOs on the global workforce
Day 3 of Semafor's World Economy Summit got underway in Washington, DC Friday, featuring interviews with leading policymakers and CEOs discussing how employers, workers, and policymakers can meet the challenge of a rapidly evolving economy. Semafor's journalists are in conversation with newsmakers including US Energy Sec. Chris Wright, Illinois Rep. Darin LaHood, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, and Steve Ballmer, the founder of Gallup Clifton argued that there is an 'emotional recession happening' in US workplaces: Data suggest that some 30 million working people are doing 'a lot worse today than they were last year,' with declining employee engagement globally. That loss of engagement, Clifton added, 'we believe amounts to half a trillion dollar loss in productivity.' Fix that problem, he said, and the gains to the global economy could be worth 'almost $10 trillion.' Congressman (R) Ill., Chairman of the Ways and Means Subcommittee on Work and Welfare Raising the debt ceiling is going to be an 'uphill battle,' LaHood said, especially given that some House Republicans have never voted to do so. But it's a priority for the president, and 'we can't default on our debt.' Leaders also aim to make certain provisions permanent from the 2017 tax law, such as a research-and-development tax credit. 'If you think about what we did in 2017, I would argue it created the best economy in my lifetime,' LaHood said, in terms of record economic growth, high wages, and jobs. 'We want to make sure we continue that going.' The Biden administration law's incentives for clean energy will almost certainly be scaled back, LaHood said, even though some Republican districts have benefitted from those projects. 'There's a bullseye on the IRA,' LaHood said. Still, he said lawmakers are cognizant of not causing disruption for companies as it's rolled back. 'I think if you look overall at the tax bill, we've predicated what we want to do on predictability and certainty for companies and businesses for long and short-term investments,' he said. 'We don't want to pull the rug out from under businesses.' LaHood said he's optimistic that a low-income tax credit will make its way into an upcoming reconciliation bill. 'It's vital that we increase our housing stock in the United States,' LaHood said. 'We need to help the housing industry. Now is the time to do that.' CEO, SpartanNash The US is facing an 'existential threat' to its economy, Sarsam said. 'The risk is that we won't have the people we need to run this great economy.' He specifically called out the nation's declining birthrate and what he described as a 'not very well-grounded' immigration policy. 'We need to get more people's hands involved in this marvel of the US economy.' Younger employees feel strongly about knowing more about the people running their companies, Sarsam said. 'They're really intensely curious on knowing and seeing a visible leadership team, a visible CEO,' he said. He has noticed this 'much more' than with employees from a generation ago. Chairman and CEO, W.W. Grainger Macpherson said top executives need to get out of the office in order to truly engage with their customers. 'You've got to go visit customers,' he said. 'Virtually every week, I'm out talking with team members and getting to know their participants, and creating a culture where they can tell you the truth and tell you what's not working.' Chairman, CEO and President, Booz Allen Hamilton DOGE has already made significant changes to the federal bureaucracy and workforce, and those changes are 'probably here to stay,' said Rozanski. Booz Allen's business relies heavily on government contracts. Rozanski suggested the administration's cuts could have the most impact in specific areas, including rooting out fraud, improper payments, and nixing duplicative services. And he argued that 'DOGE is right that the federal government is slow in adopting technology.' Global Co-Chair, Gensler Hoskins said she has seen an increased level of candor in the workplace that she thinks can lead to healthy change. 'I'd call it the honesty of the conversation about what works and what doesn't work,' she said. Hoskins added that openness has helped 'challenge some of the things in the past that really didn't provide the value that we all pretended they did.' Chair, CEO, President, Otis Worldwide Corporation Marks said more than half of the Otis workforce doesn't go into the office. 'Of our 72,000 colleagues, 44,000 are field professionals. They're mechanics who keep the world moving every day,' she said. Otis has sought to evolve with increased automation, and to better accommodate a multigenerational workforce that includes Gen Z and Boomers. 'The challenge I think we have, not just as leaders, but as a society, is trying to create an environment, logically and physically, where everyone can succeed and where you can optimize the workforce to be able to serve customers.' Senator (D) Colo. Bennet said he couldn't recall anything as devastating to workers and small businesses as Trump's tariffs. 'Unleashing a trade war on 90% of the world, all at the same time, strikes people as a pretty bad idea here, and you can see President Trump trying to walk it back.' Both parties have failed to promote economic opportunity, but Colorado can be a model, Bennet said. 'I really do think Colorado can be a place where people feel like if they're working hard, they can get ahead and that their kids are going to be able to get ahead,' he said. He called the loss of economic security 'one of the essential driving forces of Trump and Trumpism, and if we don't solve it, we really will lose the democracy.' President and CEO, CSX Rail is currently powered by diesel, Hinrichs said, but 'the future, we think, is probably hydrogen.' That transition will take some time, he added, 'because of the horsepower we need and the torque we need.' He said CSX is also testing biodiesel, but won't be looking at batteries. 'You can't do batteries, because you can't get stuck somewhere in the middle of the railroad and try and charge it,' he said. 'You have got to be able to have a power supply that can be on the locomotive itself.' Founder, USAFacts, Former CEO of Microsoft Ballmer argued that the transition for students into the workplace will be tougher now than before. But artificial intelligence may offer more solutions than problems in that regard. 'I think over time, [AI] creates more opportunity, more affluence, and more opportunity for people to live better lives,' he said. Still, Ballmer said he worried that teachers will 'underutilize' the technology. The US needs to make sure that students and workers keep up with changing technology, Ballmer said, but also continues to attract top-level global talent — especially at the PhD and graduate levels. 'We're seeing a huge war for talent for PhDs,' especially with China and India, he said. 'Because if we're really in a talent war, it's not just about the talent that we develop here. So I think there's a big immigration issue on that dimension.' US Secretary of Energy Wright said he thinks the conditions are ripe for a 'renaissance of nuclear' power in the US after decades of no new capacity. The energy secretary said the Trump administration is supporting next-generation reactor companies, including small modular reactors, as well as offering up land at Department of Energy facilities and making it easier to do tests at government-run labs. Instead of relying on subsidies like those in place for wind, he said, 'what we're doing at the Department of Energy is specific deals that are going to hopefully launch the first five, seven, eight, 10, 20 reactors, and let's get this industry going again. Then we'll get supply-chain efficiencies and volume, costs will come down and it should fly very well as a commercial industry.' Wright said natural gas is America's 'fastest-growing export,' poised to eclipse oil in the next five to seven years. Wright indicated there is 'high' interest in offtake agreements for liquefied natural gas exports out of a planned facility in Alaska. 'You get secure and sizable offtake agreements — buyers of LNG — I think the financing and the project comes together,' Wright said. Uncertainty over tariffs is 'disturbing to people,' Wright said, adding that 'it's uncertain because we're in the middle of it.' 'The goal of the president is to get all of the nations of the world equally welcoming to American exports as we've been to their exports,' he said. CEOS need to be fluent in emerging technologies, but artificial intelligence will become as ubiquitous as did mobile and digital. But as AI becomes embedded in organizations, CEOs will need a more nimble approach to project management. Read more in The Semafor View ->
