Hy-Vee searching for new suppliers through Best of Local Brands Summit

Hy-Vee is joining other large U.S. grocery chains in initiating a search for new food suppliers, particularly minority- and women-owned businesses.

The West Des Moines, Iowa U.S.A.-based operator of more than 285 stores in the U.S. states of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin is hosting its next quarterly Best of Local Brands Summit on 8 November.

Hy-Vee is accepting submissions for the summit online until 2 October. It will consider retail-ready products in grocery, produce, deli, general merchandise, frozen, dairy, and health and beauty care.

Since the company initiated its Best of Local Brands summit in early 2021, more than 125 new brands have been selected and added to its stores.

This year, Hy-Vee “continues to elevate its efforts of identifying suppliers with diverse backgrounds and encourages minority-owned and women-owned businesses to apply for the quarterly summits,” the company said.

The summit will consist of companies making 15- to 30-minute virtual presentations. ECRM and RangeMe, an online product discovery and sourcing platform, are helping Hy-Vee source, qualify, and connect with suppliers. All meetings will be conducted through ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect.

Suppliers not chosen for participation in this summit will still be listed through RangeMe and may be reviewed by Hy-Vee again in the future.

Southeastern Grocers (SEG), which operates nearly 600 supermarkets in the Southeast U.S., will also be holding a similar event, the virtual Local and Diverse Supplier Connect, to “collaborate with underrepresented suppliers ... to provide stores with an expanded variety of locally relevant and diverse products,” the company said in a press release.

The event will take place 1 November and will seek to find new products for the chain across grocery, household, fresh, frozen, personal care, pet, and baby merchandise, among other categories.  

SEG already works with nearly 300 diverse and local suppliers operating across the U.S. states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi, but it said it wants to further diversify its sourcing.

Similar to Hy-Vee, SEG is partnering with ECRM and RangeMe to source, qualify, and connect suppliers with the appropriate buyers.