About Andre Persaud
Andre Persaud, president and chief executive officer for retail at UNFI (Cub Foods and Shoppers Food Warehouse), discussed the company's strategy in a September 2024 interview at the NACDS annual meeting. Persaud described Cub Foods as a 55-year-old banner with 80 stores in Minnesota, a combination of corporate and franchise locations, and stated that the chain was the most visited grocer in the state the prior year. He emphasized that franchise partners are "critically important" to the business and that the company is focused on demonstrating value to customers every day.
Persaud outlined four strategic pillars for the company: value, in-store experience, digital engagement, and managing the day-to-day cost structure. He noted that 40% of shoppers approach grocery shopping from a digital-first perspective and said Cub is rethinking both its physical and digital experiences to engage younger customers, including offering personalized coupons based on purchasing behavior. While acknowledging that Cub previously operated in multiple states, Persaud said the current aspiration is to be the "dominant partner" for consumers in Minnesota before considering expansion beyond the state.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Andre Persaud's recent appearances.
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Transcript (11 segments)
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Interviewer0:01
What's on the mind of retailers in 2024? We wanted to know, so at the NACDS annual meeting we sat down for exclusive interviews with executives from some of the nation's top retailers. Our goal: to get an inside view of their market strategy and to ask what's on their radar for this year and beyond. Today's guest is Andre Persaud, President and Chief Executive Officer for Retail at UNFI. So Andre, thank you for joining us. Thanks for sitting down with us. Let's start by giving our viewers a reintroduction to Cub Foods.
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Andre Persaud0:41
Well, thank you for having me. Privilege to be here and honor to lead Cub. Cub's a 55-year-plus banner in Minnesota. We are an 80-store chain, a combination of corporate stores and franchise stores, and I'll tell you, our franchise partners are critically important to the success of this business. For external data, last year we were the most visited grocer within the state of Minnesota.
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Interviewer1:12
So being a 55-year-old brand, you have some loyal customers who grew up with Cub, and now you're trying to reach the younger audience. How are you doing that?
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Andre Persaud1:21
We're doing that through a couple ways. The first is ensuring that from a value perspective, we are demonstrating value to all of our customers every single day. The second, to win hearts and minds of that next generation of customers, is really rethinking both their physical in-store experience and our digital experience, and being a digital-first approach on engaging with consumers.
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Interviewer1:47
We talked earlier and you mentioned that 40% of shoppers approach grocery shopping from digital first, from mobile. So I guess you're going after that?
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Andre Persaud2:02
Yeah, everything from as simple as what are store hours, right through to inspiration, whether it's recipes. We talked a little bit about cake decorating as an example of inspiration. And then clearly an opportunity to get, coming back to value, to offer a lot of personalization through coupons based upon customers' purchasing behavior.
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Interviewer2:26
So we're in April, we're at NACDS annual. What's the priority for the rest of this year and possibly into next year?
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Andre Persaud2:35
Those four pillars. We've started those pillars, as you know, being there six months or three months ago. We've put this plan into place, and the goal is to continue to use those four pillars as an anchor: value, in-store experience, digital, and forth, just really managing the day-to-day cost structure of the business as their anchor going into FY25.
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Interviewer2:58
Final question for you. In terms of growth, do you ever see a situation or a plan where you might try to move beyond the state?
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Andre Persaud3:11
Well, the history of Cub will tell you that at one point Cub was a multi-state operator. I believe at one point Cub came as far south as Georgia. So what I would say is that today, our aspiration is to be that dominant partner as consumers think about putting food on the table, and we have to demonstrate that first in our own backyard in Minnesota.
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Interviewer3:33
Great. Andre, thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate it.
