WASHINGTON -- The target date for completion of the proposed merger between Food Marketing Institute here and Food Distributors International, Falls Church, Va., is Jan. 1, 2003, industry sources told SN last week.
Sources also told SN last week that the merged association might opt for a new name to reflect the new organization's broadened scope.
SN was also able to confirm that International Foodservice Distributors Association, a division of FDI, will not become part of the merged association but will continue operation as an independent group, with no legal ties to any other trade association.
FMI and FDI hope to announce formal merger plans in early May, around the time of FMI's annual convention in Chicago, several industry sources told SN last week. FDI's board is scheduled to meet to formally vote on the merger in March, and FMI's board is scheduled to hold a similar vote at a regularly scheduled meeting preceding the Chicago convention, they said.
Gerald Lestina, chairman and chief executive officer of Roundy's, Pewaukee, Wis., and FDI's incoming chairman, confirmed that timeline in an interview with SN last week.
FMI declined to comment on specifics when contacted by SN last week. In a statement, the association said, "All issues will be discussed and decided upon by the joint committee [composed of members of both associations' boards]. It will present proposals that will then be approved and ratified by the two boards of directors and the members."
Lestina denied industry speculation that some wholesalers are unhappy with the prospect of becoming part of FMI and might opt to affiliate with other associations.
"Except for the IFDA members, all FDI member companies agree joining with FMI is the right thing to do because there are too many trade associations," he said.
According to Lestina, there are still a number of items that must be resolved before the two associations can agree to merge, including the structure of the association's board and the governance of each segment.
He said FDI's wholesale members would become one of three FMI segments, along with large retail chains and independent retailers. "Each would have its own governing body, with either a board of directors or an executive committee, and each would be able to set its own agenda," he explained.
Asked if FDI would retain that name as an FMI division, Lestina said it has not yet been determined what the ultimate name of the new association will be. "It could remain FMI, or it could come up with a new name," he explained.
However, members of IFDA will not be a part of the new group, John Gray, IFDA's president and FDI executive vice president and general counsel, told SN. "Our members have no enthusiasm for being the fourth leg of a retail store organization," he said.
"We have 140 food-service companies in our membership, and we'd be lost in a retail organization like FMI. IFDA has had more balance as part of FDI, but there was no member support for us to become part of a large retail organization."
