Happy Spring, everyone, and hopefully you are able to read this because your eyes are still intact because you heeded all the warnings of the Eclipse Totality and your brains haven’t been too rattled by the big earthquake. As much as I wanted to take a glance up at the eclipse (sans glasses), I didn’t have to worry because where I was when it occurred the weather was cloudy and there was nothing to see at all.
The New Jersey Food Council (NJFC) held its annual Trade Relations conference at Caesar’s in Atlantic City. The event always brings out a good-sized crowd and especially so since new Wakefern president Mike Stigers was kind enough to sit for a “Fireside Chat” moderated by current NJFC chairman Andrew Kent of Glass Garden ShopRite. Mike did a terrific job of explaining the whole process of how he came to Wakefern after a career on the West Coast and then the Midwest, and how energizing it was to be working with and for 50 member families and the largest retail food cooperative in the country. Mike showed that he is approachable, insightful and willing to listen and execute on behalf of the membership and I really believe Wakefern has a worthy successor to Joe Sheridan.
Also at the event was also a panel discussion, Entrepreneur’s Perspective – Breaking into the Food Industry – which offered insight into challenges and successes of small businesses. The panel moderator for the segment was Lawrence Inserra III of Inserra ShopRite/Price Rite, and the panelists included: Gonca Esendemir, co-Founder/CMO, Thumb Bread; Jim Gunton, managing partner, Tech Council Ventures; and Dr. Juan Salinas, founder/CEO, Perfect Life Nutrition.
“We shared a discussion about breaking into the food industry and forging a pathway to success,” Inserra said. “This session provided inspiration and practical advice for navigating the complexities of entrepreneurship in the dynamic and competitive food industry through success stories about overcoming challenges, innovative business strategies, paths to capital financing and key milestones on the path to success. We know that entrepreneurs sharing their experiences of facing challenges and setbacks can provide valuable lessons.” He added, “Hearing about how others navigated obstacles such as funding issues, regulatory hurdles, or market competition offered insights into resilience and problem solving in the food industry.”
I can say this much, we have been fortunate to have had a couple of stellar “emcees” in the food industry. (e.g. Jimmy Ostling). I think you can now add Lawrence to that list. He employs a terrific amount of humor, humility, intelligence and common sense every time he has the microphone in his hand. Well done Lawrence! (and congrats on baby #2 Gabriel joining brother Rocco!) And finally to end the event, the Jimmy Ostling Trade Relations award was given to NJFC associate vice chair and trade relations committee chair Nick Brown, associate director of sales with Kraft Heinz. Mark your calendars for the NJFC’s annual “Night of Distinction” on May 15 at the Palace of Somerset. Honorees will include: Neil Greenstein, president of Brookdale ShopRite and ShopRite of Newark; Stew Leonard Jr., president and CEO of Stew Leonard’s; and Samer Rahman, vice president and chief merchandising officer of Allegiance Retail Services.
The Carl Inserra Leukemia Fund Golf outing VIP Cocktail reception was held at White Beeches Country Club in Haworth, NJ. This reception serves as a “Thank You” and a kickoff to the lead up to the big charity tournament, which will be held on June 17. The thank you comes from the Inserra family to all of the vendors and partners who help make the Carl Inserra Leukemia fund and the Inserra Family Foundation so successful.
Last year’s extravaganza raised $800,000 and the plan is to raise $1M this year. But the amazing part of it all is that the Inserra family pays for everything. All the funds raised from the participants of the outing are passed entirely through to the charity! As Inserra ShopRite chairman and CEO Larry Inserra said during the evening, “We just want to raise funds to enhance the lives of our communities and our neighbors and we can do that through research.” Inserra president and COO Jim Dorey gave a big thank you to everyone in attendance stating, “You are a great group of people who all have a common bond of supporting and seeing the value of what we do.” The June 17 outing will be held at six golf courses: White Beeches CC; Knickerbocker CC in Tenafly, NJ; Arcola CC in Paramus, NJ; Hackensack Golf Club in Oradell, NJ; Manhattan Woods CC in West Nyack, NY; and Preakness Hills CC in Wayne, NJ. The big after-golf reception will be held at The Venetian in Garfield, NJ. For more information on how to participate or contribute, contact the Inserra HQ at 201.529.5900 or [email protected].
Associated Supermarket Group (ASG) held its 2024 Vendor Summit at the Renaissance Hotel in Rutherford, NJ earlier this month. A room full of vendors was on hand to see a new style of vendor meeting as ASG opted for a Q&A panel discussion with SVP-business development Ken Scher, VP-marketing and customer experience Michelle Mendoza and EVP-operations Jonathan D’Onofrio serving as the panelists and senior merchandiser Cathy Avery serving as the moderator. After brief welcome remarks by co-CEOs Zulema Wiscovitch and Joe Garcia, the session got underway with Cathy remarking about the thousands of years of experience sitting in the room. Ken highlighted that the current ASG store count of 275 should grow by 25 more by year’s end and Jonathan and Michelle both emphasized the high levels of customer services that ASG offers its store owners as well as their partnership with Univision and the reach into the ever-growing metro NY/NJ Hispanic population. To wit, currently there are 5.6 million Hispanics in the NY DMA (designated marketing area) which translates to 26 percent of the population and this group will also drive 100 percent of the DMA growth over the next five years. These numbers were substantiated by Univision’s senior director of strategy and insights Jose Castro and NY area sales manager Rick Morales, who also participated with the panel to highlight the company’s partnership with ASG and the penetration for the ASG banners (Met Food, Associated, Pioneer, Compare, et al) through the partnership with Univision. There was no strong-arming of the vendors in attendance, just an informative overview of what is still coming up in 2024 for CPGs to penetrate the lucrative NY/NJ ethnic market through ASG. Concise and well done morning for all in attendance.
And finally, congratulations to my friend Juan Carlos Lopez of NEMA Associates as his top-notch advertising/promotional/fulfillment firm celebrates its 30th year! I remember first meeting Juan Carlos more than 30 years ago when he was tearing it up peddling Café Aroma all over the country. Juan Carlos has always been a tireless and extremely creative and intelligent visionary and with the blessing of his lovely wife and partner, Claudia, he started NEMA Associates. With an intricate knowledge of the ethnic market, Juan Carlos built his business relatively quickly and it has branched out to be a full-service solution center for all of his clients both in retail and CPG. You should go his Linkedin profile or check out their website – www.nemadesign.com – and see some of the terrific work they’ve done over the years. Juan Carlos is calling it the “30 on 30th” and it will give you a real sense of their accomplishments.
Here’s wishing him and the entire NEMA team another successful 30 years!!!!
Well, that will wrap it up for this month. I’m looking forward to seeing you all out in the field and catching up. And as always, in the interim you can reach me at [email protected] or 201.250.2217.