Topco honors members with awards, recognizes milestone anniversaries

/EIN News/ -- Itasca, Illinois, March 18, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Topco Associates, LLC recently held its Annual Membership Conference, where the cooperative honored several members who achieved significant sales and volume growth across Topco programs during 2024 while also introducing a new award that offers additional recognition.

“The membership experienced a record year in growth, not only through the performance of Topco and member own brands, but in key areas and initiatives throughout the business,” said Topco President and CEO Randy Skoda. "There’s no shortage of excellence taking place across the membership, and it’s exciting to be able to honor and celebrate the organizations that provide a great example of participation and commitment with Topco.”

New in 2025, members who met or exceeded a notable threshold in purchases from the prior year were presented with the Chairman’s Circle Award. Inaugural winners included Associated Food Stores, Inc., Hy-Vee, Inc., K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc., SpartanNash Company and Stater Bros. Markets.

Below is the complete list of growth awards and winners:

Hy-Vee, Inc. – Overall Highest Purchase Volume
In 2024, Hy-Vee led all members in overall purchase volume, which resulted in the grocer earning one of Topco’s highest awards. For a quarter-century, Hy-Vee has been an active participant on Topco’s Board of Directors, Operations team, multiple member advisory committees and has supported key initiatives. The organization has demonstrated their commitment in Center Store, Fresh, Indirect Spend, and Pharmacy programs.   

K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. – Total Penetration
K-VA-T Food Stores and its strong 2024 performance secured the award for Total Penetration. The award recognizes the member that purchases the greatest percentage of their total overall goods and services through Topco. A member of Topco for 30 years, K-VA-T Food Stores grew their penetration with continued strong purchases and participation in the Fresh and Center Store programs, utilizing Food Club, Simply Done, That’s Smart!, Crav’n Flavor, Full Circle Market, TopCare and Basket & Bushel brands in addition to several of their own brands such as Terry’s, Kern’s and Food City. This member also continued to increase their Indirect Spend Program growth as they remodeled many of their stores as well as opened several new ones.  

Affiliated Foods Inc. – Greatest Dollar Growth, Total Program
Affiliated Foods Inc. grew their purchases through strong participation across Center Store, Fresh, and Value-Add programs.

Big Y Foods, Inc. – Greatest Percentage Growth, Total Program
With a double-digit increase across combined programs – including impressive growth in produce with the expansion of Basket & Bushel, increased purchases in fresh beef and value-add programs – Big Y Foods earned this award.

Schnuck Markets, Inc. – Greatest Dollar Growth, Center Store
Schnuck Markets, Inc. earned this honor behind expanded participation in key center store areas including dairy and bottled water.

Certco Inc. ­– Greatest Percentage Growth, Center Store
Through a double-digit percentage growth – the highest percentage growth in the program – Certco’s support and incremental volume within Food Club, Crav’n Flavor, Full Circle Market and TopCare, led to them earning this award.

Associated Food Stores, Inc. – Greatest Dollar Growth, Fresh
Associated Food Stores had significant increased purchases in both Produce and Fresh Meat, leading them to this honor.

Brookshire Grocery Company – Greatest Percentage Growth, Fresh
A strong performance within Meat & Seafood and Produce & Floral – including a triple-digit increase in Basket & Bushel alone – led them to earning this award.

SpartanNash Company – Greatest Dollar Growth, Value-Add
Their increased purchases and consistent support of the Fuel, Indirect Spend and Pharmacy programs drove this achievement for SpartanNash.

Weis Markets, Inc. – Greatest Percentage Growth, Value-Add
This committed member achieved growth with a strong performance within the Pharmacy program, as well as year-over-year growth in Indirect Spend and Fuel, which led them to this honor.

Topco also highlighted members celebrating milestone anniversaries with the cooperative.

They include:
Brookshire Holdings, Inc. – 20 years
C&S Wholesale Grocers, Inc. – 20 years
HyVee, Inc. – 25 years
K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. – 30 years
Pueblo Inc. – 45 years
Meijer, Inc. – 70 years

About Topco Associates, LLC.

Topco Associates, LLC is a $19 billion, privately held, member-owned company that provides aggregation, innovation and knowledge management solutions for its leading food industry member-owners and customers, including grocery retailers, wholesalers, food service, and pharmacy companies. Topco leverages the collective volume, knowledge, and commitment of these companies to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace by reducing costs and offering winning business-building capabilities. For more information, please visit www.topco.com.

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• Topco honors members with awards, recognizes milestone anniversaries

Phil Barnes
                    Topco Associates LLC
                    847-329-3688
                    pbarnes@topco.com