Hy-Vee to host 5th “Best of Local Brands” summit in February

Hy-Vee is hosting its fifth “Best of Local Brands” summit in February to expand and enhance the product offerings at its more than 280 retail stores in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. One hundred new brands were selected from the first three summits combined and are available to Hy-Vee customers.

The summit will consist of 15- to 30-minute virtual presentations from selected suppliers. The summit will take place from Wednesday, Feb. 16 to Friday, Feb. 18. 

Hy-Vee is currently accepting submissions for its “Best of Local Brands” summit online here in the following categories of retail ready products: grocery, produce, deli, general merchandise, frozen, dairy and health and beauty care.

In 2022, Hy-Vee will continue to elevate its efforts of identifying suppliers with diverse backgrounds and encourages minority-owned and women-owned businesses to apply for the quarterly summits.

[Read more: Hy-Vee debuts two websites with ship-to-home services]

ECRM and RangeMe are helping Hy-Vee source, qualify and connect suppliers with the appropriate buyers. All sourcing and product submissions will be made through RangeMe, the industry standard online product discovery and sourcing platform, and ECRM will qualify suppliers, create curated meeting schedules and facilitate face-to-face meeting execution with Hy-Vee buyers to introduce new and innovative products into the marketplace.

All meetings will be conducted through ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect, plus, ECRM’s support team will help ensure that buyer and seller connections are executed seamlessly. Suppliers not chosen for participation in this summit will still be accessible through RangeMe and may be reviewed by Hy-Vee merchants again in the future.