Dive Brief:
- Schnuck Markets has selected 10 suppliers to take part in a newly launched accelerator program designed to help diverse-owned businesses sell their products to the Midwestern grocery chain’s customers.
- Participants in the initiative, known as Schnucks Springboard, will gain access to business development classes at the retailer’s headquarters in St. Louis, networking opportunities and an in-store product trial at certain Schnucks locations next year. They will also receive $5,000 in equity-free funding.
- Companies chosen for Schnucks Springboard include pet product suppliers, popcorn producers and a barbecue sauce manufacturer.
Dive Insight:
The grocery chain worked with the non-profit Mid-States Minority Supplier Development Council to choose the participants, which were evaluated based on factors including business stability, incremental sales chances and strategic vision, according to the announcement.
The retailer said it defines diverse-owned businesses as those that are majority-owned by women, people with disabilities, members of minority groups, military veterans or people who identify as LGBT.
To be eligible for Schnucks Springboard, companies had to have existing retail sales and offer a product that Schnucks had not previously carried, according to a description of the program on the grocer's website.
The education component of the program will provide participants with information about topics including food safety, marketing, distribution and logistics.
“We look forward to working with the proprietors of these companies and to providing the inside knowledge and tools that can help them take their products and sales to the next level,” Adrian Moore, Schnucks’ senior director of merchandising enablement and supplier diversity, said in a statement.
The grocer announced Schnucks Springboard in March, noting at the time that the program would help it strengthen the communities where it operates while also navigating changing market conditions.
Schnucks Springboard is moving ahead at a time when other retailers are also stepping up their efforts to promote diverse-owned companies. For example, discount chain Dollar General said this week that it is accepting applications through Aug. 29 for a diverse-supplier program intended to help the company expand its vendor base.
