Supervalu, Inc., announced Tuesday that it had entered into a merger agreement to acquire Unified Grocers, Inc., in a transaction valued at approximately $375 million.

The transaction will bring together two highly complementary grocery wholesale organizations with combined sales of approximately $16 billion in 2016.  Together, SUPERVALU and Unified operate 24 distribution centers supplying customers in 46 states and serve a combined customer base of over 3,000 stores. The combined company will be uniquely positioned to efficiently serve a broad range of independent customers and offer a diverse array of value added services, helping customers compete in an increasingly demanding grocery environment. The acquisition also provides new growth opportunities across multiple geographies, including the expansion of Unified’s Market Centre division, a growing business providing specialty and ethnic products to independent customers.

“We’re thrilled at the opportunity to bring together these two great organizations,” said Mark Gross, Supervalu president and CEO. “By acquiring the Unified business, including gaining a wealth of expertise and talent, we will become a stronger and more efficient organization. The The transaction will enhance our ability to help our customers better compete in the evolving grocery industry. We’re also excited to serve Unified’s dynamic retailer base. Unified’s Members and customers operate some of the country’s most exciting and progressive Hispanic and multiple other ethnic formats, specialty, gourmet, natural/organic, price impact and traditional stores. They complement our existing customer base and we look forward to facilitating collaboration and innovation across such an impressive collection of creative merchants.”