AWG continues its growth – both in size and in sales.
In 2007, AWG acquired its newest distribution center in Fort Worth, Texas. The facility was AWG’s largest at the time, at 1.1 million square feet, and served members in Texas, New Mexico, and Louisiana. Also in 2007, AWG built a brand new, state-of-the-art distribution center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Having outgrown the previous warehouse, AWG built this 800,000 square foot facility to better serve its members in Oklahoma, northern Texas, and southern Kansas.
As in previous decades, sales in 2010 continued to increase – from $4.95 billion in 2006 to $7.25 billion. The year marked the 56th consecutive year that AWG paid its members a dividend. Also in 2010, sales of AWG’s private label products reached the $1 billion mark for the first time.
In 2011, AWG broke ground on its newest division in Pearl River, Louisiana. The new Gulf Coast Division was built to provide great accessibility and low cost delivery of groceries to independent retailers in Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. AWG achieved record sales in 2011 of $7.77B.
In 2012, AWG completed a 30,000 square foot expansion of its headquarters in Kansas City, KS. The newly expanded complex houses over one-thousand employees, including the AWG corporate office and the Kansas City distribution center, as well as employees from the Valu Merchandisers Company subsidiary formerly located in Kansas City, Missouri. Sales in 2012 reached $7.85B, another record year for AWG.
AWG's Gulf Coast division in Pearl River, Louisiana, began shipping product on January 20, 2013. This new ground-up distribution center serves over 300 stores in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. The 720,000 square foot complex, which sits on 68 acres with direct access to I-10, I-59, and I-12, was built to Miami-Dade hurricane specifications with two tornado/hurricane safe rooms for employee and visitor protection. The Gulf Coast division helped AWG sales in 2013 increase to $8.38B.
Sales in 2014 once again reached a record high, at $8.93B as AWG member retailers concentrated on meeting the needs and expectations of their retail customers. AWG also set an all-time low cooperative operating expense, demonstrating productivity increases in operations. The year of 2014 also marked a milestone in the history of AWG with the retirement of Chairman, Bob Hufford, who had served on the AWG board since 1985. Barry Queen became Chairman of the Board succeeding Bob Hufford.
AWG recorded another record year in 2015, reaching $8.94 billion in sales. Also in 2015 the company celebrated the 20th anniversary of both the Oklahoma City Division and AWG’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Valu Merchandisers Company (VMC). At the end of March 2015, DGS-Acquisitions, LLC, an affiliate of AWG acquired the assets of seven stores in the Des Moines, Iowa area. Jerry Garland, AWG President and CEO, retired in 2015 as well, and David Smith became AWG’s thirteenth President and CEO. |
