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Wholesale distributor of natural, organic and conventional grocery products to retailers including Whole Foods.
Wholesale distributor of natural, organic and conventional grocery products to retailers including Whole Foods.
Buys food from thousands of suppliers and delivers it to stores, earning a thin mark-up per case plus fees for services such as merchandising. Whole Foods is its largest customer under a long-term supply deal. The 2018 purchase of Supervalu added a big conventional-grocery business and a heavier debt load.
Moat: none (scale, distribution). Distribution scale in a low-margin, price-competitive wholesale grocery business with customer concentration risk.
Headquarters: Providence, Rhode Island, US · Founded: 1996 · Employees: 23,431
Size United Natural Foods (UNFI) is a United States Consumer Staples company (Food Distributors) with a market value of $2.73B, the 1602nd largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $45.30 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares fell 13.4%, against -9.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 5th lowest of 13 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue fell 2.0% over the last twelve months (peer median +6.5%); the operating margin is 1.1% (peer median 4.6%).
Valuation It trades at 13.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 14.7× (5th cheapest of 11).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 6% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +3%, so the hurdle is +4 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 1.7 points below its cost of capital (7.7% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 5.4% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 9 Dec 2026 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2026 | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $31.2B | $31.2B | $31.8B | $31.0B | $30.3B |
| Revenue growth | — | -2% | +3% | +2% | — |
| Gross profit | $3.91B | $3.91B | $3.92B | $3.88B | $3.82B |
| EBITDA | $652M | $648M | $497M | $469M | $451M |
| Net income | $84.0M | $84.0M | -$118M | -$112M | $24.0M |
| Free cash flow | $323M | $323M | $239M | -$92.0M | $301M |
| Capital expenditure | $217M | $217M | $231M | $345M | $323M |
| Total debt | $3.04B | $3.04B | $3.45B | $3.55B | $3.27B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Natural Foods UNFI | $2.73B | -13% | -2% | 1% | 13.6× | 6.5% |
| Sysco SYY | $37.8B | +7% | +4% | 4% | 14.9× | -0.4% |
| Performance Food PFGC | $17.0B | +15% | +6% | 1% | 18.3× | 14.7% |
| US Foods USFD | $23.1B | +26% | +4% | 3% | 20.8× | 11.7% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | UNFI | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +2.8% | +4.2% | 7th highest of 13 |
| 6-month return | -13.4% | -9.9% | 5th lowest of 13 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -20.6% | -16.7% | 5th lowest of 13 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | -2.0% | +6.5% | 3rd lowest of 13 |
| Operating margin | 1.1% | 4.6% | 3rd lowest of 13 |
| Forward P/E | 13.6× | 14.7× | 5th cheapest of 11 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 6.5% | 9.0% | 5th least demanding of 12 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +2.9% | +6.3% | 5th lowest of 12 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +3.5 pp | -5.5 pp | 5th most demanding of 12 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -1.7 pp | -0.6 pp | 5th lowest of 12 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 4.6× | 2.3× | 3rd most indebted of 11 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Natural Foods UNFI | United States | $2.73B | -13% | -2% | 1% | 13.6× | 6.5% | +2.9% |
| Premium Brands PBH.TO | Canada | $2.86B | -13% | +20% | 5% | 12.2× | 7.4% | +12.9% |
| Metcash MTS.AX | Australia | $2.55B | +12% | 0% | 3% | 14.1× | 0.9% | +3.9% |
| Maple Leaf Foods MFI.TO | Canada | $2.39B | -13% | -17% | 8% | 16.1× | 2.4% | -1.9% |
| Chefs' Warehouse CHEF | United States | $4.51B | +27% | +12% | 4% | 36.3× | 22.6% | +30.1% |
| Kato Sangyo 9869.T | Japan | $1.35B | +10% | +2% | 1% | n/a | -9.5% | +1.9% |
| Dole DOLE | United States | $1.31B | -7% | +8% | 2% | 10.6× | 4.1% | +16.1% |
| Busy Ming 1768.HK | Hong Kong | $8.31B | -36% | +68% | 5% | 11.3× | 16.0% | +143.4% |
| Jiangxi Huangshanghuang Group Food 002695.SZ | China | $880M | -14% | +17% | 7% | 39.9× | 14.7% | -7.1% |
| Young & Co.'s Brewery, P.L.C YNGA.L | United Kingdom | $822M | +52% | +5% | 14% | 15.4× | 9.0% | +42.0% |
| Agencia Comercial Spirits AGCC | United States | $804M | -24% | +145% | 13% | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Krispy Kreme DNUT | United States | $723M | +16% | -5% | 0% | 50.0× | 23.2% | +6.3% |
| Shanghai Bright Meat 600073.SS | China | $702M | -15% | +3% | -3% | 8.5× | 37.0% | -1.5% |