About Store Brands Decisions

Our Market

The Store Brands Market consists of retailers who market consumer products featuring brand names that they own or control. Sometimes referred to as Private Label, Store Brands, Own Brands or Private Brands, our primary readers are retailing executives who are responsible for the sourcing, production, distribution, marketing and merchandising of these brands.

Retailers last year posted unprecedented store brands sales gains of $7.7 billion, according to Nielsen data compiled for the Private Label Manufacturers Association. Nielsen reports that store brands sales for food, beverages and HBC in supermarkets, mass merchandisers and drug stores topped $83.3 billion in 2008.

As Nielsen's figures do not include store brands sales in dollar stores, warehouse clubs, convenience stores, and limited assortment stores such as Aldi and Trader Joe's, whose product assortment is predominantly store brands, Store Brands Decisions estimates that the store brand market in food, beverages and HBC alone is in excess of $100 billion.

Our Mission

The mission of Store Brands Decisions is to help improve the profitability of Store Brands retailers and their supplier partners by providing actionable insights on best practices in Store Brand development, marketing and merchandising.

What We Do

As the first web based provider of targeted information for Store Brands executives, Store Brands Decisions is committed to delivering information and analysis related to Store Brands trends and strategy. Store Brands Decisions will serve as a catalyst for innovation in Store Brands development, marketing and merchandising.

We Value Your Input

To ensure that we are meeting your information needs, we welcome your input. Please click on this link to complete the Store Brands Decisions Reader Survey.

Leadership

John Failla, President & Editorial Director of Store Brands Decisions, has a wealth of management experience as a CPG Sales Manager, Publisher and Event Organizer, including responsibility for emedia products, magazines and face-to-face events serving the retailing, CPG, and media markets.

Prior to starting Store Brands Decisions in 2009, John spent six years as Group President at VNU (Nielsen) Business Media where he was responsible for publications, trade shows, and online services serving several markets. During his tenure at VNU, John was recognized for his entrepreneurial leadership.

Before entering the tradeshow business, John was President of the Retail Group of VNU Business Media and Vice President Retail Media at Bill Communications. While in these roles, John was responsible for magazines such as Progressive Grocer and Convenience Store News.

Prior to joining Bill Communications, John spent fifteen years at Lebhar Friedman, Inc. where he served as Vice President Publisher of Discount Store News.

John began his career in Procter & Gamble's sales management program where he learned the fundamentals of consumer products marketing and sales management.

An authority on retailing and business media brand development, Failla has been a featured speaker at domestic and international conferences on retailing, eretailing and media brand development.

Maureen Azzato, Editor of Store Brands Decisions,  is a content developer and manager with 20 years of business publishing experiencing, primarily in retailing and foodservice.

Before joining Store Brands Decisions, Maureen was owner and Chief Content & Marketing Officer of ALM Business Media where she also served as Editorial Director & Publisher of On-the-Go Foodservice, serving the information needs of retail foodservice executives.

Prior to launching ALM Business Media in May 2007, Maureen was V.P., Publisher & Editorial Director of Convenience Store News.  She was with Convenience Store News for a total of 17 years, previously serving in the capacities of Editorial Director & Associate Publisher, Editor-in-Chief and several other editorial positions. Her responsibilities included overall content development and management, sales management, marketing, research, production and circulation.

Prior to joining Convenience Store News, Maureen was a newspaper journalist for five years at several daily and weekly publications. She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications.

Jory Cener, Director of Digital Media for Store Brands Decisions is a business development executive with over 10 years of digital media experience for trade media in many different retail verticals.

Before joining Store Brands Decisions, Jory spent 3 years working with direct marketing companies in the digital space on lead generation, co-op and list rental. Prior to that from 2005-2007 Jory was the National Account Manager, eMedia for Nielsen Business Media’s Retail Food Group working on brands such as Convenience Store News, Progressive Grocer and Gourmet Retailer. In 2007 he joined Reed Business Information’s Interactive division to become their Online Sales Manager. His responsibilities were bridging the gap between print and online marketing for trade advertisers.

Jory has been working with digital media since he graduated SUNY Buffalo in 1997 with a degree in Media Studies.

Gus Venditto serves as Director of Web Operations for Tesoro Business Media. He has over 10 years experience managing websites, digital publishing platforms and audience development. His digital media experience includes work with Observer.com, Source Media and TheWeek.

Previously, he was General Manager and Editor-in-Chief of Internet.com, and Executive Editor at PC Magazine. He has also taught online publishing at New York University’s School of Continuing Education and is the author of six books on technology.

To Learn More

If you are interested in learning more about Store Brands Decisions, please contact John Failla by phone at 914.574.5709 or by email at jfailla@storebrandsdecisions.com.