UNFI Picks 360PR+ as PR Partner

United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI), the largest publicly traded grocery distributor in the United States, has named 360PR+ its public relations agency of record.

The independent agency will leverage its experience spanning b2b and b2c communications and marketing, including the agency’s deep-sector expertise in food and beverage, retail, and grocery. 360PR+ clients include America’s Test Kitchen, Giant Food, Juicy Juice, illy caffé, Nasoya, Pete & Gerry’s Organic Eggs, Drizly, Mass. Bay Brewing Co., Sagamore Spirit, and Wellness Natural Pet Food.

“360PR+’s strategic thinking and deep category experience is exactly the blend of expertise we were looking for in our PR partner,” said Amanda Helming, CMO of UNFI. “They came to the table already steeped in our industry and invested in the business, and were clearly ready to hit the ground running. In fact, they’ve already demonstrated that their strong relationships with media can drive impactful results for us.”

The agency will support a variety of UNFI initiatives, among them elevating the company as an employer of choice and raising awareness of UNFI’s Brands+ product portfolio, comprising 15-plus brands and more than 5,000 products spanning 250 grocery and household categories.

“It’s certainly an exciting time to be working with UNFI, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with their innovative, industry-leading team to help support brand and recruitment efforts,” said Victoria Renwick, EVP and partner at Boston-based 360PR+.

For its first quarter ended Oct. 30, UNFI reported that sales in its supernatural channel increased 13.5% to $1.4 billion, offsetting slower rates of growth in other parts of the business. The supernatural channel’s double-digit gain in the first quarter is an acceleration from the channel’s 11.8% increase in UNFI’s fourth quarter ended July 31. The food wholesaler’s supernatural channel is its third-largest segment, behind chains and independent retailers, but it was the fastest-growing in the past fiscal year, advancing 7% to $5 billion and accounting for 18.7% of UNFI’s full-year sales of $26.9 billion.

Providence, R.I.-based UNFI delivers a wide variety of products to customer locations throughout North America, including natural product superstores, independent retailers, conventional supermarket chains, e-commerce retailers and foodservice customers. The company is No. 47 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.