United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI) is continuing to reshape its distribution network, with the latest consolidation bringing operations from its Racine, Wisconsin, distribution center into its nearby Joliet, Illinois, facility.
CEO Sandy Douglas disclosed the move during UNFI’s Sept. 8 earnings call. The consolidation was completed in June and has brought operations together at a Joliet site that is still in the early stages of introducing full-case automation.
For UNFI, the shift is intended to create a more efficient operating model while strengthening service to customers and suppliers across the Midwest. President and COO Giorgio Tarditi told investors that the company expects the move to generate operating efficiencies over time, although he also warned that the transition would likely come with “a little bit of growing pains.”
Part of a broader network overhaul
The Joliet move is the latest step in a wider distribution network reorganization that UNFI launched in fiscal 2025 as part of a three-year financial recovery plan, following two years of uneven results.
The wholesaler has already consolidated other facilities in North Dakota, Montana, Indiana and Pennsylvania, shifting operations into nearby locations between October 2024 and October 2025, according to Rajiv Sujan, UNFI’s senior vice president of network process optimization, who provided the information in an email to Supply Chain Dive.
At the same time, the company has continued to expand its footprint in selected markets. UNFI opened a distribution center in Manchester, Pennsylvania, in September 2024, followed by a new facility in Sarasota, Florida, in August 2025, Sujan said.
The network changes are being accompanied by a push to improve day-to-day execution across UNFI’s facilities.
By Aug. 1, marking the end of fiscal 2026, the company had completed the initial rollout of lean daily management at 44 distribution centers, Douglas said. Tarditi linked the program to a fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year gains in order fill rates, on-time deliveries and warehouse throughput.
UNFI is now preparing the next stage of that initiative. Dubbed Lean 2.0, the second phase will place greater emphasis on reinforcing daily management programs and improving management problem-solving capabilities, Tarditi said.
AI and automation remain central
Technology is also becoming a larger part of UNFI’s network strategy.
During fiscal 2026, the company completed the rollout of its artificial intelligence-powered supply chain and procurement planning platform across every distribution center in its network, according to Douglas.
The company plans to continue investing in its distribution infrastructure in fiscal 2027, with $300 million in capital spending earmarked for a range of projects. Those investments will include automation, an enterprise resource planning (ERP) deployment and other technology initiatives.
According to Tarditi, the objective is to simplify processes while giving UNFI faster and better visibility into operational performance.
