included 30 items worth an incremental $3 million. “I love Sprouts and I’m delighted with the innovation we introduce in our stores,” he said. “Whether the items are plant based, organic, gluten free, or any other differentiating trait, our customers and team members often respond with rave reviews.”
Tom Lombardo, category manager for private label, Sprouts Farmers Market Lombardo brings to the retailer a vast knowledge of key suppliers in the industry and he’s quick to research new private brand suppliers that are capable of producing to the level of the health foods store’s standards. Recently, Lombardo helped develop a new packaged line of private label chocolates, candies and nuts. Part of this process was creating and implementing new packaging, new product standards and an in-depth pricing assessment. “With national brands, we are limited to the assortment they created,” he said. “With private label, we can tweak the taste, texture, appearance, aroma, and many other factors to create products that specifically target Sprouts customers, and, ideally become their favorites.”
Jake Tavello, vice president of stores, Stew Leonard’s As the nephew of Stew Leonard Jr., Tavello has been around the beloved grocer since the age of 15 — and putting in the work to learn. He’s worked in every department across all Stew Leonard stores. His hands have tossed pizza dough, roasted coffee and cut open a 200-lb. swordfish. While in college, he also spent two summers learning all about store operations. As a full-time team member for four short years, Tavello has been rising through the ranks, including time as a store director at various locations before reaching the role of vice president of stores in June. Tavello has helped drive store openings for a grocer that is more than 60% store brands, and he said that he sees private brands only growing as they seek out the trendiest. “I’m most excited about continuing to offer ‘clean’ products like our Simply Mariana sauce, which is imported from Italy and made with simple ingredients, as well as our Naked line of antibiotic and hormone-free meat,” he said.
Emily Krakowski, director of sales and marketing, SunTree Snack Foods At the nuts and snacks company, Krakowski consistently works to come up with new platforms and ideas for snacking concepts. Recently, for a retailer partner, she helped create a special lineup of flavored almonds. That project required working through labeling parameters, requests and a quick commercialization timeline that she was able to hit on all marks. Josh Sowell, senior vice president and COO of the company, said Krawkowksi is diligent, hard working, creative and insatiable 40
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for results. “She takes our own company’s interest into mind, but more importantly looks to raise the water level across the retailers with all parties in mind,” he said.
Brittany LaSota, quality assurance manager for regulatory and nutrition, Topco Associates Leading the regulatory team on all aspects of product labeling for more than 20,000 products procured by Topco, LaSota is a resource for Topco members and suppliers on regulatory, nutrition and quality questions. She keenly interprets regulatory changes and her insights help Topco daily in their businesses. LaSota loves seeing products get developed and ensures the product and packaging is compliant. “If you asked one of my family members, they’d probably tell you I get way too excited when I go to a store and see products that I helped develop on-shelf,” she said, “but I’m proud of the work I do and I am always happy to show it off.”
Parth Patel, program manager for pharmacy, Topco Associates Parth has spent his career in retail operations and the supply chain, including time spent as a small business owner where he said he witnessed the control that national brands had over retail operations. In his role now, he’s bringing a new way of thinking to develop insights and analytics reporting to how Topco serves insights to its members. In one example, he formulated data into scorecards for members and delivered it right to their inboxes, providing them a glimpse at how various members were executing programs, demonstrating insights they’d never seen before. Topco members appreciated the insight into how they benchmarked against their peers and it became a key part of Topco’s health and wellness programs. “I find it very rewarding to know that my efforts empower regional retailers who service the needs of their communities by providing affordable products,” he said.
Linda Phan, category manager for dairy and frozen, Topco Associates Phan has been a leader of several own brand projects at Topco, but one that stands out is her work spearheading a line of pizzas under the Crav’n Flavor launch in less than 18 months and seeing it rise to become the most successful frozen pizza program for the company. It’s a brand that thrives on innovation, in pizza flavors or unique frozen appetizers, and Phan knows it. She said it takes her passion for food and the smarts of a category management background to bring innovative products to market. “For own brands to prosper in the ever-changing competitive landscape,” she said, “versatility in approach, product offerings, and execution will be more crucial than ever.”
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8/6/20 10:26 PM