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A&P Shifts Pathmark To C&S DC

MONTVALE, N.J. — C&S Wholesale Grocers last week was set to begin a month-to-month contract hauling groceries to Pathmark stores from a warehouse in Harrisburg, Pa., following the closure of five Pathmark warehouse facilities in New Jersey. C&S was the low bidder in a request for proposals to take over Pathmark distribution from Grocery Haulers Inc., Pathmark owner A&P said in bankruptcy court documents

Jon Springer, Executive Editor

February 7, 2011

2 Min Read
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JON SPRINGER

MONTVALE, N.J. — C&S Wholesale Grocers last week was set to begin a month-to-month contract hauling groceries to Pathmark stores from a warehouse in Harrisburg, Pa., following the closure of five Pathmark warehouse facilities in New Jersey.

C&S was the low bidder in a request for proposals to take over Pathmark distribution from Grocery Haulers Inc., Pathmark owner A&P said in bankruptcy court documents filed last week. A judge in the case last week granted A&P permission to reject its contract with GHI, which provided exclusive hauling of groceries for Pathmark.

The warehouses — Pathmark's main grocery warehouse in Woodbridge, N.J., along with four other New Jersey distribution centers referred to as the Woodbridge facilities — were expected to close, and C&S was expected to begin delivering goods to Pathmark from Pennsylvania as soon as Feb. 6.

The moves reflect the struggles of A&P — and by extension, the supplier providing around 70% of its saleable goods — as both look to more cost-effective strategies amid dwindling sales.

A&P called the GHI contract “substantially above market” and said the C&S offer would provide the retailer annual savings of $7.6 million, despite fuel costs resulting from trucks having to drive an additional 9 million miles per year. The Harrisburg facility, unlike the Woodbridge sites, is non-union.

Both Grocery Haulers, Avenel, N.J., and a Teamsters local representing GHI employees filed to deny the order to reject the contract.

According to Teamsters Local 863, C&S indicated to the union that it “would only keep the [Woodbridge facilities] open if the union met the savings that C&S said it could achieve by removing the work and transferring it to a non-union facility.”

A C&S spokesman did not comment on the closures.

The move to close the facilities and reject the contract would streamline a complex relationship between the various entities that, according to A&P, resulted in expensive and inefficient distribution.

Avenel, N.J.-based Grocery Haulers took over transportation for Pathmark in 1997, prior to Pathmark's acquisition by A&P. Although A&P and Pathmark combined their supply agreements under C&S following their merger, Pathmark's transportation business continued to be operated by GHI, creating inefficiencies, A&P said.

“For example, even though a Waldbaums-branded grocery store and a Pathmark-branded grocery store may be geographically proximate to one another, [A&P] is required to utilize and pay two different carriers to deliver merchandise from the same distribution centers to these two stores,” A&P argued in a court document.

The union said this characterization was untrue and accused C&S of being unreceptive to renegotiating its contracts.

At least one observer was wary of the move, saying disruptions brought about by the change could weaken stores where out-of-stocks are already an issue. “This is not the time to be making changes like this,” Burt P. Flickinger III of Strategic Resource Group, New York, told SN.

About the Author

Jon Springer

Executive Editor

Jon Springer is executive editor of Winsight Grocery Business with responsibility for leading its digital news team. Jon has more than 20 years of experience covering consumer business and retail in New York, including more than 14 years at the Retail/Financial desk at Supermarket News. His previous experience includes covering consumer markets for KPMG’s Insiders; the U.S. beverage industry for Beverage Spectrum; and he was a Senior Editor covering commercial real estate and retail for the International Council of Shopping Centers. Jon began his career as a sports reporter and features editor for the Cecil Whig, a daily newspaper in Elkton, Md. Jon is also the author of two books on baseball. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree in English-Journalism from the University of Delaware. He lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with his family.

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