Central Grocers Cooperative

Central Grocers Cooperative

Company type	Retailers' cooperative
Industry	Grocery wholesale and retail
Founded	1917
Headquarters	Joliet, Illinois , United States
Area served	Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin
Products	Nationally branded and private label grocery merchandise (Centrella, Silver Cup Value Buy)

Central Grocers Cooperative, originally founded in 1917 under the name Central Wholesale Grocers, functioned as a retailers' cooperative with its main office located in Joliet, Illinois, near the city of Chicago. It provided both nationally recognized and private label merchandise marketed under the Centrella and Silver Cup Value Buy labels to approximately 400 member-owned grocery stores situated in Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin.

The cooperative served various grocery chains within Indiana and Illinois, such as Strack & Van Til (which it acquired in 1998), Town & Country, Key Market, and Ultra Foods. It also took over several former Cub Foods outlets in the Chicago metropolitan region, operating some locations under the Strack & Van Til and Ultra Foods banners, as well as managing Gray's Foods in Rockford. In 2008, Central Grocers expanded through a merger with fellow cooperative Certified Grocers Midwest. Prior to 2009, its corporate headquarters were based in Franklin Park, Illinois.

By 2013, Central Grocers had become the seventh largest grocery cooperative nationwide in the United States, with combined annual revenues surpassing $2 billion.

On May 2, 2017, an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition was initiated against Central Grocers by creditors including The Coca-Cola Company, General Mills, Inc., Mars Financial Services, and Post Consumer Brands. In response, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on May 4, revealing intentions to shut down its distribution facility and divest 22 Strack and Van Til stores along with seven Ultra Foods locations. Subsequently, SuperValu agreed to acquire the distribution center.

References

• Smaller grocers circling Chicago: Stores open in outlying towns; are burbs next? by H. Lee Murphy in Crain's Chicago Business, 2 16, 2006