GMDC HONORS TRADE PRESS EXECUTIVES

CHRISTINA VEIDERS

MONTEREY, Calif. -- Trade press veterans, Peter Ephraim, who is East Coast general merchandise/health and beauty care sales rep for SN, New York, and Glenn Snyder of Snyder Consulting, Mamaroneck, N.Y., were honored with the General Merchandise Distributors Council's Lifetime Achievement Award.

The award is given to individuals who have made significant contributions to the supermarket nonfood industry during their careers, said Rick Tilton, president of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based GMDC, which named the honorees during the GM Marketing Conference held here from Sept. 12 to 17.

For more than a decade both men worked as a team on Progressive Grocer, Stamford, Conn., building the supermarket industry's reputation in nonfood. Ephraim was sales director for nonfood and Snyder was editor of the nonfood section.

Prior to his tenure with Progressive Grocer, Ephraim was publisher of Non-Foods Merchandising from 1974 to 1986. He joined SN's sales staff in March.

Only two others have received the Lifetime Achievement award. Fran Willmes, a former executive of Spartan Stores, Grand Rapids, Mich., who is credited with founding the GMDC, received the award during the GMDC's 25th anniversary celebration in 1995, and Jerry Gilbert, a former executive of Johnson & Johnson Corp., New Brunswick, N.J., was honored last year.

"It is humbling for me and Glenn to be put in the same company with Willmess and Gilbert," said Ephraim.