SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

3 Months Ended

Oct. 31, 2020

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

NOTE 1—SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Nature of Business

United Natural Foods, Inc. and its subsidiaries (the “Company”, “we”, ”us”, “UNFI”, or “our”) is a leading distributor of natural, organic, specialty, produce and conventional grocery and non-food products, and provider of support services. The Company sells its products primarily throughout the United States and Canada.

Fiscal Year

The Company’s fiscal years end on the Saturday closest to July 31 and contain either 52 or 53 weeks. References to the first quarters of fiscal 2021 and 2020 relate to the 13-week fiscal quarters ended October 31, 2020 and November 2, 2019, respectively.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include the accounts of the Company and its subsidiaries. All significant intercompany transactions and balances have been eliminated in consolidation. Unless otherwise indicated, references to the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations, the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets and the Notes to the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements exclude all amounts related to discontinued operations. Refer to Note 16—Discontinued Operations for additional information about the Company’s discontinued operations.

The accompanying unaudited Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been prepared pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) for interim financial information, including the instructions to Form 10-Q and Rule 10-01 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, certain information and note disclosures normally required in complete financial statements prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States (“GAAP”) have been condensed or omitted. In the Company’s opinion, these Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements include all adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the financial position, results of operations and cash flows for the interim periods presented. However, the results of operations for interim periods may not be indicative of the results that may be expected for a full year. These Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements should be read in conjunction with the Consolidated Financial Statements and notes thereto included in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended August 1, 2020 (the “Annual Report”). There were no material changes in significant accounting policies from those described in the Company’s Annual Report.

Discontinued Operations

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 2020, the Company determined it no longer met the held for sale criterion for a probable sale to be completed within 12 months for the Cub Foods business and the majority of the remaining Shoppers locations excluding five Shoppers locations that are held for sale (collectively “Retail”). As a result, the Company revised its Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements to reclassify Retail from discontinued operations to continuing operations. This change in financial statement presentation resulted in the inclusion of Retail’s results of operations, financial position, cash flows and related disclosures within continuing operations. Prior periods presented in these Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements have been conformed to the current period presentation, resulting in Retail being presented in continuing operations for all periods. Retail was acquired as part of the SUPERVALU INC. (“Supervalu”) acquisition in the first quarter of fiscal 2019 on October 22, 2018.

Use of Estimates

The preparation of the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Cash and Cash Equivalents

Cash equivalents consist of highly liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less. The Company’s banking arrangements allow it to fund outstanding checks when presented to the financial institution for payment. The Company funds all intraday bank balance overdrafts during the same business day. Checks outstanding in excess of bank balances create book overdrafts, which are recorded in Accounts payable in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets and are reflected as an operating activity in the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows. As of October 31, 2020 and August 1, 2020, the Company had net book overdrafts of $275.8 million and $267.8 million, respectively.

Reclassifications

Within the Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows certain immaterial amounts have been reclassified to conform with current year presentation: prior year amounts for Proceeds from disposal of investments have been combined into a line titled Proceeds from dispositions of assets; and prior year amounts for Payments for long-term investment and Payment of company owned life insurance premiums have been combined into a line titled Other. These reclassifications had no impact on reported net income, cash flows, or total assets and liabilities.

Inventories, Net

Inventories are valued at the lower of cost or market. Substantially all of the Company’s inventories consist of finished goods and a substantial portion of its inventories have a last-in, first-out (“LIFO”) reserve applied. Interim LIFO calculations are based on the Company’s estimates of expected year end inventory levels and costs, as the actual valuation of inventory under the LIFO method is computed at the end of each fiscal year based on the inventory levels and costs at that time. If the first-in, first-out method had been used, Inventories, net would have been higher by approximately $49.9 million and $43.3 million at October 31, 2020 and August 1, 2020, respectively.