Hy-Vee, a West Des Moines-based grocer that’s operated in the Midwest for more than a century, is looking to expand into four new states, from its current eight states.
The company has seen sales increase dramatically during the pandemic, CEO Randy Edeker told the online publication Grocery Dive recently, and now it plans to move into new territories. The chain has been in states that surround its Iowa home base, but plans call for grocery stores in four new states—Indiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky—by 2023.
The plan includes a new distribution facility and seven stores targeting major cities in Indiana and the Southeast, according to a report in The Des Moines Register’s. Hy-Vee will then look to build store density in these markets, with a roadmap for 21 stores by 2025.
The Nashville, Tenn., distribution facility would be Hy-Vee’s third and the first one outside of Iowa. The facility would also service Hy-Vee stores in southern Missouri, according to The Register’s report.
“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 said in an internal video obtained by The Regiser, referring to the Southeast region. “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.”