Trading Partners

Regional independent grocer Save Mart was named one of the companies having the top 100 IT solutions by IDG’s InfoWorld magazine, in an award program that honors IT projects that exemplify intelligent, creative uses of technology to meet business and technical objectives.

Almost two-thirds of consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers that moved retail sales activities from internal teams to sales and marketing agencies (SMAs) saw a positive effect on selling costs after the switch, according to a recent study commissioned jointly by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) Sales Agency Committee and the Association of Sales and Marketing Companies (ASMC) Foundation, and conducted by Bain & Co.

Mars Chocolate North America took the wraps off two huge projects last month: the largest solar garden installed by a New Jersey food manufacturer, and an overhauled, state-of-the-art headquarters encompassing offices and a manufacturing plant that now represents the company’s classic brands in a way that the company said was “magical, collaborative and sustainable.”

As a new year beckons, new challenges — and plenty of the old ones, too — are bound to bedevil center store section managers and the consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers whose products they stock, a circumstance that makes Mintel’s predictions of CPG trends to watch in 2010 all the more indispensable.

Progressive Grocer is seeking your help in compiling our annual list of leading women in the supermarket industry, to be featured in our annual Top Women in Grocery issue. In a business where males have traditionally far outnumbered females, we recognize the women who are helping initiate change. These women represent all major sectors of the grocery industry - retailers, suppliers, and wholesalers.

The coming year will bring a raft of new consumer packaged goods that Chicago-based global supplier of consumer, product and media intelligence Mintel forecasts will expand on tried-and-true formulas.

According to research by food and grocery expert IGD, 85 percent of consumer packaged goods manufacturers have either increased their investment in sustainability or kept it the same during the recession, in spite of the fact that just over two-fifths (42 percent) think the issue isn’t a high-enough area of concern for consumers.

At its annual analysts’ meeting this week, international retail conglomerate Delhaize Group unveiled a new strategic plan for the near future emphasizing accelerated growth, increased efficiencies and stronger intra-group integration.