Martha Stewart Keynotes PLMA’s Store Brands Reality Trade Show

The Private Label Manufacturers Association announced its slate of speakers and seminars for its 2014 “Store Brands Reality Trade Show,” to be held November 16-18, in Chicago. Headlining the program will be a keynote speech by Martha Stewart, founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Emmy Award-winning television show host, entrepreneur, bestselling author and one of America’s most recognizable business and media personalities. Product lines bearing the Martha Stewart name have provided major retail chains with exclusive lifestyle offerings in categories that range from cooking and entertaining to gardening, home renovation, crafts, healthy living, pets and much more. Their success has expanded the concept of store brands, while opening up new possibilities for the private label industry. Her namesake company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, today reaches approximately 100 million consumers every month and has a growing retail presence with 8,500 products in thousands of retail locations. In addition to the PLMA Keynote Breakfast, Monday, November 17, PLMA announced speakers and topics for a series of seminars on Sunday that will examine the latest retail trends, industry issues, and the strategies that are driving store brands growth, as well as for the annual PLMA Live! Breakfast on Tuesday, November 18. Leading off PLMA’s Sunday afternoon seminars is Christopher Durham, whose influential website, My Private Brand (www.mypbrand.com), chronicles the growth and expansion of retailer-owned brands internationally and across all retail channels. Store Brands are for Everybody will be the session title. Three concurrent seminars will follow: addressing retailers’ quality control issues, organic and natural foods, and trends in store brands cosmetics. What Your Q.C. Department Isn’t Telling You Moderator: Jim Wisner, Wisner Retail Marketing Store Brand Organics: Where Value Meets Profit Moderator: Robert Vosburgh, News Director, PLMA Live! Store Brands Cosmetics: More Than a Pretty Face Moderator: Len Lewis, Lewis Communications The PLMA Live! Breakfast on Tuesday, November 18, will feature a presentation by Stephen Mader, Senior Analyst for Kantar Retail on the topic of Digital Retailing. This year’s PLMA’s will be the largest and most vibrant in the show’s thirty-four year history, surpassing even last year’s record show for size and attendance and presenting more than 2,400 exhibit booths throughout three major halls at Chicago’s Rosemont Convention Center, say PLMA officials,. Exhibiting companies will offer up tens of thousands of products across virtually every food and beverage category – including prepared foods, frozen and refrigerated, ingredients, snacks, gourmet and specialty – while on the non-food side, exhibitors feature health and beauty care, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, vitamins & nutrition, household, kitchen and cleaning products, DIY and general merchandise. Among the more than 4,500 visitors who attend the event each year are the leading U.S. supermarkets, drug chains, mass merchandisers, wholesale clubs, convenience and specialty retailers, in addition to wholesalers, brokers, importers and others.