SuperValu and C&S Wholesale in US collusion lawsuit

A lawsuit has been filed against SuperValu in the US alleging collusion between the grocery chain and its competitor C&S Wholesale Grocers. Filed on 31 December in federal court in Wisconsin, the suit alleges that SuperValu’s supply chain division and C&S divvied up the regions in which they operate so that they wouldn't have to compete against one another. D&G, which operates a small chain called Gary's Foods in Iowa, filed the suit on behalf of itself and other mom-and-pop operations. "Supervalu bet the whole empire on the neighbourhood grocer and now they just don't care anymore," said Gary’s owner, Dennis Dietrich. He said that the Gary’s chain ended its relationship with SuperValu several years ago after it closed a distribution centre in Des Moines, IA and began taking on an additional USD1,500 in extra weekly fees to ship groceries from Minneapolis, MN. The suit alleges that Supervalu could shut more DCs without fearing competition from C&S because of an agreement made between the two companies in August 2003. That deal led to the closing of six DCs (three for each company) in the Midwest and New England. The suit alleges several counts of anti-competitive behaviour that constitute violations of the Sherman Act.

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