United Natural Foods Announces Plans to Expand Midwest Operations

United Natural Foods, Inc. (Nasdaq: UNFI - News; the "Company") today announced plans to open a new state- of-the-art distribution facility in Greenwood, Indiana. The Company has received approval from local planning and zoning officials to expand the new facility from its existing 277,000 square feet to 308,000 square feet and to implement design specifications specifically suited to serve the needs of United Natural Foods.

The center is scheduled to commence operations in July 2005 and will serve as a distribution hub for customers in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and other Midwest states. United Natural Foods currently has 15 distribution centers throughout the United States, consisting of an aggregate of 2.6 million square feet of space. United Natural Foods has the largest capacity of any distributor in the natural products industry.

Steven Townsend, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said, "Continued strong sales growth for United Natural Foods and increasing consumer demand for natural and organic products create the need for this new state-of-the-art facility in the Midwest. Committed to being the highest quality and lowest cost distributor for the natural products industry, the Greenwood center will be furnished with innovative technologies that will improve our distribution capabilities and ensure that our customers in the Midwest Region receive further product diversity and enhanced customer service. Overall, this facility will be a solid addition to our extensive nationwide distribution infrastructure and has the capacity to accommodate future growth. As we previously announced, UNFI continues to invest in its people, facilities, equipment and technology to continue to drive efficiencies throughout our Company."

"Additionally, we found that the Greenwood area provided a large base of committed, hard working, and dedicated people and we are pleased to note that this facility is expected to create more then 250 jobs over the next three years," Mr. Townsend added. The Company is partnering with the city and state to begin the hiring process in February 2005.