RETAIL NEWS

BOISE, Idaho — Albertsons on Wednesday announced the promotion of one of its own to lead its store operations, supply chain, manufacturing, integration and marketing and merchandising. The company named Wayne Denningham, most recently EVP and COO, to the role of president and COO.

Bob Miller remains in his position as chairman and CEO, which he has held since April 2015, the company said.

IRI and the Boston Consulting Group identified five trends exploited by the consumer packaged goods winners in their latest growth leaders report. According to the report, the best CPG companies successfully merged health and wellness with convenience, benefitted from the tailwinds driving growth across the convenience channel, capitalized on mergers and acquisitions to accelerate growth, tapped into ethnic flavor trends and leveraged their social media outreach.

Merging heath and wellness with convenience

BENTONVILLE, Ark. — Walmart on Wednesday launched a sustainability platform, which invites suppliers to join the retailer in committing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions resulting from their operations and supply chains.

CINCINNATI — Kroger on Tuesday announced that Angel Colón has been promoted to senior director of diversity. He has been serving as the company's director of multicultural development for merchandising since 2008.

Colón succeeds Rueben Shaffer, who retired at the end of March, as Kroger's head of diversity and also assumes the responsibilities for the company's strong supplier diversity program.

DALLAS – A national coalition of more than 50 leading U.S. companies known as the 100,000 Opportunities Initiative will come together on May 19 at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center to host the Dallas Opportunity Fair –  an unprecedented, day-long hiring event aimed at 16-24 year olds who are not in school and unemployed.

One of the biggest trends in food and beverage in the past several years has been in better-for-you offerings — something that’s expected to continue to influence new products as consumers remain focused on what’s in their favorite snacks and beverages. When IRI published its 2017 New Product Pacesetters report in early April, the firm noted that one of the drivers of category growth has been healthier innovation. Of IRI’s 100 New Product Pacesetters in the food and beverage category, 47 of them featured healthier-for-you-attributes.

BRAMPTON, Ontario — Loblaw Companies plans to invest approximately $1.3 billion into the Canadian economy in 2017, the company announced Thursday. The investment will expand and improve Loblaw's network.

"Our investment will create improved retail experiences for customers and local jobs for communities," stated Galen Weston, chairman and CEO, Loblaw Companies. "Our focus is clear. Across our network, we will provide greater access to fresh, affordable, innovative food and more robust health and wellness services for Canadians."

In an effort to better understand the workflow dynamics between buyers and sellers and the common pitfalls and opportunities inherent to the buying process, ECRM recently conducted an online study of more than 5,000 retailers and vendors, over a two-week period.

While it was encouraging to find that, in general, there is good alignment between retailers and suppliers, the findings suggest that plenty of room still exists for the relationship to improve. 

What follows are the top seven takeaways from the research.