ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill., June 11, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Topco Associates LLC announced its 2014 distinguished group of Corporate Brand Best-in-Class Marketing Campaign Award winners at its annual Super Show held June 2 and 3 in Schaumburg, IL, attended by nearly 800 guests, represented by 47 Topco members and more than 400 supplier companies and featuring nearly 10,000 one-on-one meetings. Six Topco members were recently recognized for their outstanding marketing efforts in support of store brands. In addition, Topco honored six suppliers for their excellence in partnership.
"Our member award winners demonstrated exemplary marketing promotions with their store brands," said Chris Hooks, Topco Senior Vice President, Center Store and Meat Programs. "They have successfully utilized new and innovative marketing methods to effectively market corporate brands while our suppliers continue to provide valued partnership, further demonstrating the importance of advancing as One Topco."
Topco's Best-in-Class Marketing award recipients include:
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Best-in-Class Brand Marketing: SpartanNash Co.-- For ten years SpartanNash Co. has supported and sold the trusted Top Care brand throughout their stores. This year, they expanded that support into their new stores in Indiana and Minnesota. Through effective promotions, front-page ad campaigns and impactful in-store POS, SpartanNash Co. has seen increased overall sales of Top Care products by 50%.
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Best-in-Class Promotional Program: Southeastern Grocers, LLC --Southeastern Grocers promoted its Winn-Dixie and Southern Home brand products with its "Cone Crew" mobile ice cream team. The team visited 21 markets in Florida and Georgia, distributing 11,500 samples of their store-brand ice cream and floats to potential shoppers while raising brand awareness in its newly expanded market.
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Best-in-Class Merchandising - Retailer: Golub/Price Chopper Supermarkets -- Outstanding merchandising was exemplified last year by Price Chopper Supermarkets who effectively merchandised its new "Build your own single cup 24-pack" single-serve coffee pod station. Shoppers were encouraged to fill up an easy-carry box with their 24 favorite flavors for $11.99. Not only did the promotion build store brand awareness in the competitive single-pod coffee category, but the campaign resulted in a 166% sales increase in the member's own brand of single-serve coffee pods as well as a 67% increase in overall Price Chopper brand coffee category sales.
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Best-in-Class Merchandising - Wholesaler: Associated Grocers, Inc. -- Last year, Associated Grocers (Baton Rouge) introduced the "Snack Shack" chip program to increase consumer awareness of Shurfine's new resealable bags. Their "Rip, Dip, Zip!" promotion, a turn-key, cross merchandising, end-aisle campaign for stores, saw overall sales of the member's Shurfine brand salty snack program increase 50% over 2013.
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Best-in-Class Cause Marketing: Brookshire Holdings, Inc. -- With its "Fresh15 Fun Run," Brookshire Grocery Company associates raised $80,000 to benefit Bethesda Hospital and the American Heart Association. At the event, Brookshire Grocery Company also increased brand awareness to race attendees through various samplings, giveaways and fun race day games.
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Best-in-Class Cause Marketing: Golub/Price Chopper Supermarkets -- Price Chopper Supermarkets has run its highly effective "Tools for Schools" promotion for the past 16 years. "Tools for Schools" uses a point system that allows shoppers to earn supplies and equipment for local schools. The promotion builds customer engagement and bolsters store brand sales by giving customers double points for all store brand purchases. With many years of legacy behind this campaign, the member has raised a total of $11 million for local schools.
- Best-in-Class New Item Launch: Giant Eagle, Inc. -- On October 14, 2014, with the help of Giant Eagle brand cookies, 2,152 people set a world record for the most cookies dunked at the same time. In addition, the effort created excitement throughout Pittsburgh with press coverage, cookie sampling events and local donation campaigns. With the help of the record breaking event, sales of Giant Eagle's own brand cookies have totaled over $2.2 million.
"Collaborating with suppliers is what best-in-class retail companies do, and we are pleased that we have strong ties to the supplier community," stated Hooks. "Because of the collective trust and commitment by Topco, members and suppliers, we are all advancing as one" he concluded. This year's supplier winners were chosen from among approximately 2,500 Topco supplier partners, and include:
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Health & Beauty Care: Rockline Industries - This supplier experienced a 23% sales increase last year while maintaining a 97% fill rate and a QA score of 99 (out of 100). Rockline also introduced a variety of new items and improved the quality of their products.
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General Merchandise: Logical Pet - This vendor - with over 600 pet care SKUs - helped bring three additional Topco members into the PAWS brand family last year, increasing its overall sales by 17% and Topco productivity by $200,000.
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Quality Assurance: John B. Sanfilippo & Son, Inc. - Maintaining 482 item specifications, this supplier's sales purchases increased by 24% last year while their order fill rate reached 98.2%. Sanfilippo also introduced a number of new items last year while remaining focused on reducing their carbon footprint, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 75%.
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Frozen: Echo Lake Foods, Inc. - Offering our members frozen breakfast items, this supplier was quick to ramp up their production capacity last year, earning them additional business. As well, Echo Lake Foods has excelled in launching new and fun waffle and pancake varieties.
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Grocery: Cameron's Coffee - This coffee vendor, which recently joined Topco in 2012, has quickly grown to service 23 Topco members, experiencing a 53% sales increase last year while bringing its fill rate to 99.8%. Cameron's offers 40+ flavors of coffee within their portfolio under the Wide Awake Coffee Co. and World Classics Trading Company brands, and continues to add innovative flavors.
- Pharmacy: McKesson Corporation - As the largest pharmacy wholesaler in the U.S. and globally, McKesson supplies prescription drugs to Topco's 27 Aggregated Pharmacy Initiative (API) members with an annual pharmacy contract purchase volume of $4.4 billion. Last year, McKesson's Topco API purchase volume increased by 32% while the wholesaler provided an incremental savings to participating members of $40 million above the original contract savings.
About Topco Associates LLC:
Topco Associates LLC is a $14 billion, privately held company that provides aggregation, innovation and knowledge management solutions for leading food industry member-owners and customers. Topco leverages the collective volume, knowledge and commitment of these companies to create a competitive advantage in the marketplace by reducing costs and offering winning business-building capabilities.