IGA acquires What Brands Want management consulting service

The Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) has entered into an agreement to acquire management consulting service What Brands Want, LLC and is promoting its owner Michael La Kier to lead IGA’s Red Oval partner relationships as VP of brand development. 

“After building What Brands Want, LLC for the past 10 years, I’m excited for the next phase of growth as part of the IGA family, bringing new, expanded resources to our existing partners,” La Kier said in a statement. “I am thrilled to join IGA on their mission to aid independent grocers as they work tirelessly to nourish families in their local communities, and I look forward to partner with manufacturers and other partners to highlight the business value of working with independent retailers in the grocery channel.” 

IGA’s Red Oval program offers support for manufacturers and helps them market to independent retailers and their shoppers.

“Nearly every major brand in the grocery industry is a member of the IGA Red Oval program,” IGA CEO John Ross said in a statement. “The program provides analytics, marketing strategy, co-marketing opportunities and more.”

What Brands Want, LLC is a management consultancy that has worked with CPG companies such as General Mills and retailer Walmart.

“Michael’s work building What Brands Want puts him in the perfect position to take our Red Oval partnership to the next level,” Ross said. “With Michael on board, IGA can continue to do what we do best—serve independent grocers—while growing our value for CPGs and manufacturing partners, which in turn allows us to provide even more value and resources to our retailers.”

La Kier has more than 15 years of experience in shopper marketing, loyalty, digital marketing and brand management at Coca-Cola. He also served as an on-loan executive at Wakefern Food Corp., the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States.

For the past three years, La Kier has served as an adjunct professor at Georgia State University’s Robinson College of Business, teaching a course on data-driven marketing to marketing students.

La Kier holds a bachelor of science in advertising from the University of Texas and an MBA from Georgia State University.

IGA was founded in 1926, and now has operations in 46 states and more than 30 countries, commonwealths and territories.