NEWS WATCH: GLADSON INTERACTIVE CHANGES HANDS...WASHINGTON ADVANCES PROPOSED WINE LAW...TREE OF LIFE COMPLETES RESTRUCTURING

GLADSON INTERACTIVE CHANGES HANDS

r President Mike Spindler has bought Gladson Interactive here from its founder and owner, Ted Gladson. Gladson Interactive provides shelf management, creative and planogram services to food, drug and mass merchants. Spindler remains on the board of MyWebGrocer. Separately, Gladson announced an agreement with Vestcom International, a communications firm, that would allow retailers to add product images to Vestcom shelf strips to allow for faster restocking and reduced lost sales due to out-of-stocks.

WASHINGTON ADVANCES PROPOSED WINE LAW

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A bill moving toward passage here would eliminate the state's three-tier system for distributing beer and wine, but it's unclear if the bill would lower prices to consumers, according to news reports. Under a bill that passed the state Senate, retailers would no longer have to use a distributor to buy from out-of-state producers, and all producers would have to charge uniform prices. The bill grew out of a lawsuit filed by Costco Wholesale challenging the three-tier system.

TREE OF LIFE COMPLETES RESTRUCTURING

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. - Natural and specialty food distributor Tree of Life here recently hired two new category experts, completing a year-long staff restructuring process designed to improve service and eliminate redundancies in responsibilities. Ken Erickson and David Tsang were named, respectively, director of premium taste and senior category manager for Asian. The restructuring accompanied a reorganization that consolidated offices and was designed to reduce costs and apply best practices throughout the company.