Private Brands Summit to Draw Wider Audience

DALLAS — The Food Marketing Institute will encourage retailers to think like shoppers at its 2012 Private Brands Summit, co-located with FMI2012: The Food Retail Show.

Whereas previous summits have drawn store-brand leaders already immersed in corporate brands, the latest iteration will cater to a cross-section of the food retail business with attendees interested in private-label opportunities, consumer trends and shopper loyalty, encouraged to attend.

Twenty-five thousand retailers, wholesalers and suppliers representing 90 countries are expected to descend upon Dallas for FMI2012, with individual operators, such as Hy-Vee, sending well over 100 employees.

“The benefit of combining FMI Private Brands with our FMI2012 is that it presents the opportunity to reach industry leaders representing every area of the retail business, and challenges them to think differently about their strategies and partnerships as they relate to private brands,” said Joe McKie (left), vice president of Private Brands for FMI.

FMI’s Private Brands Education and Research Committee, co-chaired by Ralph Fischer, group vice president of food merchandising at Meijer; Edgar Elzerman, vice president Own Brands for Ahold USA; and John Graham, chief customer officer of Clement Pappas & Co., began working on the  agenda when the most recent Private Brands Summit concluded last fall.

“The FMI private brands community really guides and directs our areas of focus and where they want to spend their time and ask questions and gain incremental insights that are going to help them be more competitive moving forward,” McKie said.

The summit’s educational workshop — one of seven tracks featured at the show — begins Monday, April 30, at 2 p.m. with a presentation by Harvey Hartman, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of The Hartman Group. Hartman will shed light on snacking trends, the products customers gravitate towards and gaining one’s fair share of mind and wallet.

Another summit highlight — the Idea Exchange Breakfast — kicks off day two. Participants will be organized into small roundtable discussions on “Increasing Private Brand Products in the WIC program,” “Building Collaborative Trading Partner Relationships” and “Private Brand Marketing.”

Attendees will also hear from their peers during sessions such as “Building Strong Retail Brands through Multi-Faceted Collaboration,” a product development case study featuring Laura Sturdevant, director, product development for private brands at Walgreens; George Miketa, executive vice president, sales, Snacks Holdings Co.; and Todd Maute, partner at CBX.

FMI will also share results from a partnered report with Buxton at the show, including a case study involving Meijer, Inc. and John B. Sanfilippo & Son. Buxton tested marketing efforts to provide an understanding of the best return on investment when marketing to loyal private-brand customers, and those likely to switch between private labels and national brands.