UNFI cut 10 DCs to 6 in two regions and automated picks, doubling expected throughput

United Natural Foods moves 1.3 billion cases a year through 59 distribution centers, a footprint with expensive redundancy. In March 2021, president Chris Testa told investors the wholesaler had opened a new Riverside, California distribution center and completed a 'major expansion' at Ridgefield, Washington — and had introduced automation into portions of both, where it expects a 100% increase in throughput as measured by units picked per hour, yielding expense savings on top of better order accuracy and lower operational credits.

The two projects are the visible piece of a network redesign announced two years earlier: in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California, UNFI is going from 10 DCs to 6, and CEO Steve Spinner said the reduction lowers the wholesaler's fixed costs by stripping out redundancy across inventory, trucks and material-handling equipment. 'In a distribution business, the more volume you can flow through a singular DC, the more EBITDA you're going to create,' he said.

The design gives each region a fast-moving warehouse, a slower-moving warehouse and a general merchandise facility, with automation concentrated on slower-moving, each-pick inventory. The prize Spinner described back in 2019: 250,000 SKUs available on the West Coast, 'no more than maybe 100 miles from the customer,' all on one truck — a proposition, he said, no other wholesaler offers.

Automated sections of the new and expanded DCs are expected to pick 100% more units per hour, with better order accuracy; 10 DCs in two regions become 6.

Redundancy is the tax of running many DCs: duplicated inventory, trucks and material-handling equipment across sites.

Automation pays where pick labor dominates: the slow-moving, each-pick inventory handled at Riverside and Ridgefield.

Consolidation compounds EBITDA: more volume through fewer, bigger DCs cuts the fixed cost per case.

Regional density doubles as a customer offer, not just a cost play: 250,000 SKUs within 100 miles, delivered on one truck.

In distribution, volume through fewer, automated nodes compounds: each consolidation strips duplicated inventory, trucks and equipment, and faster picks turn fixed cost into EBITDA.

The Riverside opening and Ridgefield expansion are executed; the regional optimization continues toward 10 DCs becoming 6 in the Pacific Northwest and Southern California. Spinner bolted a sustainability layer onto the same program: food waste down 50% by 2025, zero waste to landfill from DCs by 2030, and DC energy intensity down 30% by 2030. Automation does raise warehouse energy demand, but measures like slower conveyor speeds and coordinated autonomous movement can keep use down.