RETAIL NEWS

DSN has named Thrifty White Pharmacy its 2016 Pharmacy Innovator award winner. DSN publisher Eric Savitch and editor in chief/associate publisher Rob Eder presented the award to Thrifty White president and CEO Bob Narveson, COO Tim Weippert and key members of the company’s pharmacy leadership team at an exclusive reception at Minneapolis’ Butcher and the Boar restaurant.

The competitive landscape throughout the OTC arena has changed significantly over the past five years, with the Top 10 rankings shifting in the past year thanks to a slew of acquisitions and joint ventures. Bayer’s bolt-on acquisition of Merck’s Consumer Health business in 2014 helped solidify its spot as the second-largest OTC marketer. And GSK Consumer Healthcare claimed the No. 3 spot after forming a joint venture with Novartis Consumer Health.

There is a paradigm shift under way in the men’s grooming category, and electric shavers, as well as the retailers that sell them, are feeling the effects of this revolution.

(Click here to read the full Category Review.)

MCLEAN, Va. — The biggest launch in M&M’s brand history, M&M’s Caramel Chocolate Candies features a creamy, caramel center covered in milk chocolate, enclosed in a candy shell. Caramel is the fastest-growing flavor segment in food, growing 15% in 2015, according to Mars. Hank Izzo, VP of research and development of parent company Mars Chocolate, said the brand regularly plays around with size, shape, color and texture. But, caramel has been especially of interest to the company in recent years. “Caramel is extremely trendy,” he said.

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn. — Supervalu completed the sale of its Save-A-Lot business to an affiliate of ONEX for $1.365 billion.

CINCINNATI -- The chief commercial officer and chief information officer of 84.51°, a customer engagement firm and subsidiary of Kroger, will succeed Kevin Dougherty, Kroger group VP and chief digital officer following his retirement Jan. 27, the retailer announced Tuesday.

When a company has been around as long as Plymouth, Minn.-based Thrifty White Pharmacy — which traces its roots to the 1884 opening of White Drug in what was then the Dakota Territory — there is an expectation that to stick around, it has to adapt to changes in the industry to stay in business. But rather than be content following its competitors’ leads in an effort to simply keep the lights on, Thrifty White has been on the front lines of adapting early to the biggest changes impacting the pharmacy business.

In 2017, there will be three growth categories within the OTC sector that will continue to post dividends to retail pharmacy’s bottom line across the self-care aisle. We’re calling them the old, the now and the future.

(Click here to view the full Category Review.)