Hy-Vee Holding 4th ‘Best of Local Brands’ Summit in November

Grocer also welcoming 3 new in-store W Nail Bars

9/16/2021

Hy-Vee Holding 4th ‘Best of Local Brands’ Summit in November The W Nail Bair

The W Nail Bar opened its first location within a Hy-Vee store in Bettendorf, Iowa, in April 2021.

Hy-Vee Inc. will host its fourth quarterly “Best of Local Brands” summit this November to grow and improve the product offerings across its eight-state Midwestern footprint. Eighty-two new brands were chosen from the first- and second-quarter summits combined and are currently sold at Hy-Vee stores, and third-quarter summit brand selections are taking place this week.

Scheduled for Nov. 3-5, the upcoming fourth-quarter summit will feature 15- to 30-minute virtual presentations from selected suppliers. Hy-Vee is now accepting submissions for the event online in the categories of retail-ready products: grocery, produce, deli, general merchandise, frozen, dairy, and health and beauty care.

ECRM and RangeMe are helping Hy-Vee source, qualify and connect suppliers with the appropriate buyers. All sourcing and product submissions will be made via San Francisco-based RangeMe, the online product discovery and sourcing platform, and Solon, Ohio-based ECRM will qualify suppliers, curate meeting schedules and enable face-to-face meetings with Hy-Vee buyers to introduce innovative products into the marketplace. All meetings will take place on ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect and ECRM’s support team will help ensure seamless buyer and seller connections. Suppliers not selected for the summit will still be accessible through RangeMe and may be reviewed by Hy-Vee buyers again in the future.

In other Hy-Vee news, three new W Nail Bar locations are set to open within stores operated by the grocer in Iowa and Wisconsin. The partnership between Hy-Vee and the Columbus, Ohio-based company was first revealed this past March, with the inaugural Hy-Vee location opening inside the grocer’s store in Bettendorf, Iowa. Regarding the newest Hy-Vee locations, The W Nail Bar in Grimes, Iowa, opened on Sept. 14 in the grocer’s reimagined new-concept store. The other two nail bars will be in Davenport, Iowa, slated to open adjacent to the Hy-Vee there on Friday, Sept. 17, making it the second location in the Quad Cities, and in Eau Claire, Wis., on Tuesday, Sept. 28, the first location in that state. Appointments are now being accepted for all three locations and can be made online.

“This is an exciting time for our company as we work to expand our national reach,” said The W Nail Bar co-founder Lauren Hunter. “As a result of our partnership with Hy-Vee, we have seen significant demand for The W Nail Bar to open new locations, especially in the Midwest. We look forward to servicing clients in these new markets, as well as [providing] valuable jobs to those wanting to work in a fun, clean and community-focused environment.”

Employee-owned Hy-Vee has a team of 86,000 employees and operates more than 280 retail stores across eight Midwestern states, with sales of $11 billion annually. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based company is No. 34 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.