DES MOINES, IA - Looking to make the ambitious move from regional grocery brand to national chain, Hy-Vee has rolled out a blueprint for expansion into four new states by 2023. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based retailer recently announced that it will be staking its claim in three southeastern states and Indiana as part of a larger growth strategy.
“This is the growth for the next 25 years for Hy-Vee in this territory,” Randy Edeker, Chief Executive Officer, said in a video obtained by The Des Moines Register. “If we can build out 50 stores in this market, we estimate that is $6 billion [in sales]. But overnight we’re going to go from a regional company to a national company. As we build our third DC [distribution center] in the Nashville market you will see us turn more into a national presence.”
Moving forward, Hy-Vee plans to open more than 20 new stores in these regions by 2025, as well as its third DC in Nashville, Tennessee, according to the news source. The DC, which is the company’s first distribution facility outside of Iowa, will initially serve seven new stores in Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky, in 2023 in addition to its existing stores in southern Missouri.
Hy-Vee currently intends to open two of these seven stores in the Nashville metro area, one in Knoxville, and one in Memphis, Tennessee. Additional stores will be located in Huntsville, Alabama; Louisville, Kentucky; and Indianapolis, Indiana.
“You take a look at this map and you see this massive hub of over 50 cities of over 150,000 that are within five hours of Nashville, Tennessee, and that is the strategy that we are starting to think about,” Edeker continued in the video, referencing a map of the southeast region the company is expanding into. “We could open a new distribution facility in Nashville, Tennessee, or that vicinity, and then launch a dozen or so stores over the next two years in that market.”
As this expansion kicks off, select employees will be relocating to the Nashville region as early as January 2022. Hy-Vee currently has over 93,000 employees at more than 285 stores in eight Midwestern states: Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
This will be Hy-Vee’s first time entering a new state since 2009, when the company expanded into Wisconsin. Before that, the retailer hadn’t increased its nationwide footprint since 1988.
How will this four-state expansion spur further nationwide growth for Hy-Vee? AndNowUKnow will continue to report.
