A Cadre of Retailers to Present at the Innovation & Marketing Summit

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January 18, 2012

Nancy Cota

Six store brands executives from high-performing retailers in the grocery, mass, club and specialty channels will share their expertise during presentations at the Store Brands Decisions Innovation & Marketing Summit in March. Discussion topics include driving store brands innovation, non-foods opportunities, today’s value shopper and integrating packaging innovation and sustainability.

Three senior level store brands executives from Safeway, Winn-Dixie and Ahold USA have joined an all-star panel of retailers who will discuss the major themes and takeaways from the Summit in a session titled, “Driving Store Brands Innovation.”

Wesley Bean

Moderated by Store Brands Decisions’ founder John Failla, this special panel was one of the highest rated sessions at last year’s inaugural Summit. Sitting on the panel are Nancy Cota, vice president of innovation for Safeway, where she has worked for 35 years; Wesley Bean, vice president of own brands strategy for Winn-Dixie, where he manages a $1 billion private label portfolio; and Tom Becker, director of own brands marketing for Ahold USA, who previously worked in brand management positions at Heinz, Ocean Spray and Colgate.

Tom Becker

“We’re thrilled to have such a great line up of senior retail executives from large retail companies featured on our retailer panel,” said Failla. “We’re confident this special closing session will once again provide real value for Summit attendees.”

Non-Foods Focus
Exploring the store brands opportunities in non-foods is Michael Kitz, vice president of OfficeMax brands and product development. He will highlight key advantages of retailer driven innovation and how consumer insights fuel the OfficeMax innovation process. Kitz also will share how OfficeMax has expanding its offering beyond its own stores, revealing both the benefits and challenges. Prior to joining OfficeMax, Kitz worked on brand management for leading companies such as Goodyear, Motorola, Honeywell and Procter & Gamble.

Michael Kitz

“Mike’s breadth of experience in retailing, store brand management and consumer products marketing make him an excellent featured speaker for this important session on the non-foods opportunity in store brands,” Failla said.

Family Dollar Opening Keynote
Summit attendees are also in for an eye-opening keynote presentation by Mary Rachide, division vice president of private brands for Family Dollar. Rachide will share her insights on building retailer brands that matter in a value-driven world. Dollar stores continue to gain notoriety as the fastest- growing retail segment, with the largest players such as Family Dollar focusing more heavily in recent years on store brands. Family Dollar’s store brands sales are up 20-plus percent this year alone. Prior to joining Family Dollar in 2009, Rachide worked five years for McKinsey & Company and two years for Liz Claiborne.

Mary Rachide

“We’re thrilled to have Mary Rachide join our faculty for the second annual summit,” said Failla. “We continue to be impressed with great strides Family Dollar is making in store brands and look forward to her sharing her perspective with our Summit attendees.”

Packaging Innovation & Sustainability
Meanwhile, Walmart’s Sam’s Club division will deliver a special keynote presentation on packaging innovation and sustainability. Presented by Robert Parvis, director of packaging for Sam’s Club, the session titled “Integrating Packaging Innovation and Sustainability into Sam’s Club and Walmart,” will provide an overview of the journey Sam’s Club and Walmart have taken to make packaging in their retail formats more sustainable.

Robert Parvis

“With heightened industry interest on packaging innovation and sustainability, we’re thrilled to be presenting this special keynote presentation,” Failla said. “We think industry suppliers will get special benefit from this exclusive presentation as it will provide insights on how they can potentially use sustainable packaging to grow their business.”

For more information on the Innovation & Marketing Summit visit the event website.

Read These Related Articles:

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• Retailer Panel Added to Store Brands Decisions' Summit
• From the Summit: A Roadmap to Store Brands Success
• Supervalu Restructures Store Brands Merchandising Team
• Challenges in Store Brands Packaging Design

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