the rofda report 2014

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‘Inspired Change’

2014

THE

A Shelby Publishing Special Section

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2014 DECEMBER • A Shelby Publishing Special Section THE2014

How would you characterize ROFDA’s last year?Overall, I would have to say pretty great. I’m optimistic

about our future, that of our members and the indepen-

dent retail grocers they serve for several reasons.First, ROFDA’s leadership is nothing less than excep-

tional. Our board of directors is made up of distinguished industry leaders motivated to make a difference (see page 30).

In recent years, we’ve seen unprecedented changes in our board primarily due to retirements. These member presidents and CEOs bring unique qualities and abilities that provide strength to the whole.

In addition, the experience and “action-oriented” style of ROFDA Chairman Martin Arter (president and CEO of Affiliated Foods Midwest) has enabled us to take things to a whole new level.

Second, we are finding new ways to connect and engage. We’ve really had to consider all the relation-ships that impact our purpose and mission. Our “ROFDA Champions” (appointed by the ROFDA board to be Cameron’s point of contact beyond the president and CEO of member companies) have done an excellent job educating their organizations. As a result, their teams have been activated to do more together.

Associates and suppliers also are finding new ways to engage with our members. It all started with asking them

for their perspective and input. Paul Adams, president of Paul Adams & Associates,

has facilitated share groups that have provided action-oriented recommendations that we use to strengthen our aligned interests.

Collaboration with important trade associations like the National Grocers Association (NGA), Food Marketing Institute (FMI) and Global Market Development Center

Francis Cameron,ROFDA President and CEO

I have been lucky enough to be affiliated with ROFDA for more than 10 years. I think we would all agree that over that period of time, we have seen the most significant change to our industry. As the paradigm shift continues to occur, it has created demand for an organi-zation like ROFDA.

Not only was the world changing as (were) the needs of the food distribution, but ROFDA itself was at a turning point. Many of the longtime veterans that forged ROFDA along with its great leader, Ferrell Franklin, were beginning to retire. It was at that point that the Board of Directors needed to look to the future and find our next leader. We were lucky enough to find Francis Cameron. Francis has done a wonderful job and keeps communications and new programs at the

forefront. Francis, along with the board, understood we needed a revised direction. With a relatively new board with some very strong staple board members, our new Mission Statement and strategy was born.

We have many strategic initiatives, and they take place throughout the entire year. It is a pleasure to work with a group of presidents and CEOs that do not hesitate to meet with each other or to call on one another in order to keep all our initiatives a priority until they are completed.

There have also been occasions when I had a situation and wanted to see how my peers were dealing with that particular topic. It is invaluable to have such a wonderful outreach of people who I can talk with about industry topics. My grandfather taught me “it is a wise

man that learns from his own mistakes, but it is a wiser man who learns from someone else’s mistakes.”

I could not be more pleased with the won-derful vendors that have chosen to be a part of ROFDA. I have partnered with most of the vendors who have joined. This allows us to work directly with the leaders of these com-panies but also allows us to hear from our peers about how the solution is working in their operation and vice versa. This, again, goes back to the lesson I learned. It also gives the vendor a direct connection to the leaders of ROFDA, who in turn come back to their teams to initiate the objective.

Another strong part of ROFDA is our Share Groups. We pick a topic to discuss, such as IT, healthcare, distribution, human

resources and many more. Each company brings in their leaders and we all talk over our particular situations and learn the best practices, which are being used to better serve our customers.

What this all means is that the best-of-class leaders and vendors are collaborating together for the purpose of delivering excep-tional service. Our customers need us more than ever. I am confident that with ROFDA and the vendors we have chosen to partner with we will better equip our stores to com-pete for years to come.

ROFDA Board Member Perspective

Christopher MillerPresidentAssociated Grocers of FloridaPompano Beach, Florida

Cameron: Groundwork Provides Momentum as ROFDA Seeks to Do More

Please see page 4

Francis Cameron joined Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates (ROFDA) in 2010, first in the role of VP of business development and then as EVP and COO. He took the reins as ROFDA president and CEO in September 2012. For this year’s ROFDA Report, The Shelby Report sought Cameron’s perspective relative to the past year as well as to the future of his organization.

PURPOSE STATEMENTA cooperative formed to facilitate and enhance the success of independent retail grocers.

MISSION STATEMENTCooperatively united to utilize and leverage all available resources, industry best practices and business relationships to provide added value to our independent retail grocers.

STRATEGIC INITIATIVES• Enhance Industry Identity• Improve Communication and

Information Sharing Methods• Expand Aggregated Activity• Support Operational Fairness

“We are always pushing to do more. This is still a relationship business and ROFDA’s strength as a cooperative can only be realized through connecting people to deliver against our purpose and mission.”

—Francis Cameron

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A Shelby Publishing Special Section • DECEMBER 2014THE2014

(GMDC) has been critical in finding solutions to issues facing our industry.

Lastly, we are coming off a good year for our organiza-tion. However, we will never be satisfied with yesterday’s success. We are always pushing to do more. This is still a relationship business and ROFDA’s strength as a coop-erative can only be realized through connecting people to deliver against our purpose and mission.

How has ROFDA been able to deliver value to its mem-bers and the independent retail grocers they serve?

Without a doubt, ROFDA has provided significant value to members and the independent retailer grocers they serve. After my first board meeting, it occurred to me that we really weren’t capturing the direct/indirect value to our members.

On a direct basis, ROFDA has provided aggregated pro-gram savings, exclusive product promotions and mem-ber patronage. That part is pretty simple.

The difficulty is in identifying some of the indirect value. For instance, how do you capture the benefit pro-vided in the 40-plus member surveys we conducted last year? Or the benefits realized through our spring and fall conferences? In fact, we asked our members, associates and suppliers, “Should we reduce our conferences to once a year?” The responses we received were an over-whelming “no.” Participants cited the value they receive

in attending as the reason. Some things are just hard to put a number on. We do

our best to capture direct/indirect value and strive to do more.

In your opinion, what is the most important data out there—or not—that is most meaningful for the inde-pendent?

From an independent’s perspective, I would expect the most important data drives the daily management of their business for efficiency and profit.

From my perspective, I’d have to say consumer data. I’m sure many of our independents share that opinion. But utilizing consumer data in aggregate comes with some complexity. That’s where our members come in.

Historically, our member cooperatives were created to leverage the buy and efficiently distribute goods. Today, our members do so much more. They offer services that aid in buying better, selling more and reducing redun-dant costs. They work with suppliers and service provid-ers to give their independents solutions that drive sales through leveraging consumer data. ROFDA will continue to assist in that process.

What are vendors doing differently now than say, just a couple years ago, that has elevated the buy-sell relationship and partnership with the independent grocer?

The vendor community has been terrific in embrac-

ing ROFDA. After all, they are a part of ROFDA. Those engaged with us understand the aggregated opportunity and our commitment to find solutions to improve one another’s business. I would say that the vendor commu-nity has stepped up to bring solutions that ultimately provide more value to independents. While we are hav-ing the right conversations, we still have much to do.

How do you think the recent elections will impact the independent grocer and/or the cooperative, which serves him/her?

That’s a great question. Regardless of one’s party affili-ation, Americans should be concerned about today’s political environment. We obviously are dealing with some significant issues, but our lack of relative action is troubling. Healthcare, debt ceilings and immigration have all contributed to congressional deadlock.

I’m probably guilty of falling into certain political rhet-oric and jumping on the bandwagon of “problem identi-fiers.”

Quite candidly, the partisan politics must end. We are a great nation of “solution providers.” May our leadership find the wisdom and courage to come together to repre-sent the best interests of this great nation.

I think we can best impact important issues through personal responsibility and relative action. NGA President and CEO Peter Larkin’s team and our state gro-cers associations do an exceptional job representing the political interests of the independent grocer (see page 9).

What are some of ROFDA’s plans in the coming year?While we intend to stay the course in terms of our

purpose, mission and strategic plan, we believe the groundwork laid in the last year provides momentum for accomplishing more. In the last year, we welcomed a new chairman in Martin Arter, appointed ROFDA’s new Advisory Council (RAC), launched our new web portal, conducted the most member surveys in our history, cre-ated more share groups and saw our highest attended/rated conferences.

In the coming year, it will take the commitment of our members, associates and suppliers to bring greater strength to the independent retail grocers we serve as well as to ROFDA.

At ROFDA conferences, I have been intro-duced to a number of supplier organizations that I might not have gotten to know other-wise. In many cases, we have gone on to allow these suppliers to compete for our business, and we are currently doing business with many of them. Just in the last year, we have begun doing business with ROFDA suppliers in the areas of private brands, packaging and

supplies, and food safety management. If not for our membership in ROFDA, we might not have been introduced to these outstanding companies.

A specific example is the relationship our company has forged with Western Family. In addition to bringing a quality private brand name to our warehouse to complement our Piggly Wiggly lineup, we have been able to

join their meat buying consortium, and that will be very advantageous for our retailers.

■ ■ ■

The professional relationships formed and the information sharing opportunities at ROFDA are awesome. We have been able to go and visit other warehouses and see how they do things. We have found many

instances where the wheel had been already invented and were able to bring back solid and proven ideas back to our warehouse operation.


David BullardPresident and CEOPiggly Wiggly Alabama Distributing Co.Bessemer, Alabama

Cameron... From page 3

“Historically, our member cooperatives were created to leverage the buy and efficiently distribute goods. Today, our members do so much more. They offer services that aid in buying better, selling more and reducing redundant costs. They work with suppliers and service providers to give their independents solutions that drive sales through leveraging consumer data. ROFDA will continue to assist in that process.”

—Francis Cameron

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ROFDA provides a great forum for dia-logue and creative problem-solving among co-ops. An example is our growing business arrangements with Affiliated Foods Midwest (based in Norfolk, Nebraska) concerning specialty foods. We’re working with Affiliated Foods Midwest directly with respect to their access to what we call our Market Centre, which is our specialty foods division. We work very closely together so that Affiliated Foods Midwest can bring those products to

their members in a fashion that makes it their program, but we collaborate in terms of procurement and category management, etc. It lowers the cost of goods to Affiliated Foods Midwest members, makes the pro-cess more manageable for them and puts them in a better place to compete every day.

That arrangement was hatched at a ROFDA meeting and has led to a broader exchange of ideas and examination of how our companies can work together in

various ways.By accessing ROFDA programs, we’re

able to bring opportunities in terms of both products and services to our members at a price that we might not be able to get with-out that collaboration or aggregated buying power.

As a relatively new director, I’ve been impressed by the openness and willingness of other members of ROFDA to openly and aggressively share information in a way that

allows us to service our individual members more effectively. ROFDA is a forum for that dialogue and a facilitator of that dialogue. It serves an important role.


Bob LingPresident and CEOUnified GrocersCommerce, California

Affiliated Foods Midwest (AFM) is living proof that collaboration helps a business grow. The Norfolk, Nebraska-based company has been working with its suppliers to build custom programs for many years; not as much for the co-op to build profits as it is for its members to be better able to compete in the highly competitive retail food marketplace. They need the pricing and products to be able to compete against the big boxes, dollar stores, drug stores, price-impact formats, and the list goes on.

Its proper focus on members has allowed AFM to grow into 16 states and operate three warehouses in Norfolk; Elwood, Kansas; and Kenosha, Wisconsin, the newest of the three.

Martin Arter, president and CEO of AFM since 2001, is a longtime proponent of these mutually beneficial relationships with CPGs. But why limit it to CPGs? Arter and Bob Ling, president and CEO of Unified Grocers in Los Angeles, another member-owned grocery co-op and fellow ROFDA member, figured out a few years ago that they could work together on specialty food distribution and benefit both companies and their retailers. AFM buys specialty items for its retailers through Unified’s Market Centre, which increases volume for the warehouse while bringing costs down across the board.

AFM has a similar relationship with Topco Associates, which special-izes in the private label side of the business, along with others.

As chairman of ROFDA for the next two years, Arter brings this spirit of collaboration and “co-opetition,” which also marked the ten-ure of his predecessor, J.H. “Jay” Campbell from Associated Grocers of Baton Rouge. Because more than half of ROFDA’s 13 board members have been in their positions for a relatively short time, he sees an oppor-tunity to support them in their efforts and to focus on creating “co-ops within the co-op,” such as the relationship between AFM and Unified.

Following are excerpts from The Shelby Report’s interview with ROFDA’s chairman.

What are the duties of the ROFDA chairman?My duties are to take direction from the board (made up

of the member company presidents/CEOs)…It’s a privilege to serve. I’ve been a part of ROFDA for many years; been going to ROFDA (conferences) for probably 20 years, but this is the first time I’ve served in this role.

We have four solid strategic initiatives, but at the end of the day, it’s really about serving the independent retailers, and when I look at my role in that, it is to bring together the vendors and the CPGs. On our end, honestly, we’re looking for industry alliances.

We want to consistently partner with like-minded organi-zations, co-ops or not, that are going to focus on the retail-ers and what their needs are for the future. I believe there is a resurgence in that because the vendors and the CPGs have dealt with the mass (merchandisers), they’ve dealt with the dollar stores and they realize the bread of America truly is that independent retailer that’s able to be part of the fabric

of the communities.So I’m pretty excited about this. Not excited, necessarily,

that I serve in the chairman role; I’m excited that I’m able to be part of it. It’s servant leadership…it’s really giving back.

I’m also excited about the forward-thinking CEOs within our group. Some of them have a lot of tenure, a lot of experi-ence, a lot of knowledge, and other ones are newer coming into it. But, again, I think the purpose we’re there is that we’re a like-minded organization and we’re looking for ways to har-ness and collaborate.

The other term I use is “co-opetition.” What are the resources that we can use together between our companies that will help our retailers grow where, individually, we’re unable to produce the same kinds of results?

Francis (Cameron, ROFDA president and CEO) says you have an action-oriented style.

I believe that “vision without execution is hallucination,” a quote from Thomas Edison. When you look back at America and how it was built, it was built by entrepreneurs that had a will to succeed and they believed in something and had a passion. And I am passionate about the business, pas-sionate about helping the retailers. It’s great people in this industry. Just like your company. There’s just good people in our industry and I’m glad to be a part of it. Francis is well spoken and a great leader, and his wife Teri; Teresa (Pope, in ROFDA’s Alabama office); and Ferrell (Franklin) and the leaders before. I’m more of the mindset of a little more quiet—under-promise and over-deliver. I’m glad to serve.

Is there anything you’re looking to change or enhance during your chairmanship?

I don’t know that there’s any one thing. I think in the past there has been a lot of discussion about the opportunities we have to work between our groups. I think that time is here. We’re actually doing it; we’re not talking about it any more. Whether it’s relationship with Market Centre or it’s Randy Arceneaux from Amarillo calling up or me calling him and saying can I help you with some turkeys or do you need some Hispanic product? It’s truly happening, it’s not just (talk); it’s very transparent. I think that’s what really can get a lot of us excited because each one of us can’t do alone what we’re going to be able to do together. I think it’s letting your guard down a little bit, not really caring who gets the credit. And really being able to help the retailers survive in a very com-petitive environment where we all need to reduce our costs. The CPGs and the vendors are looking at us in a very positive way as well. Yeah, I think there’s going to be some opportuni-ties for aggregation between us, some opportunities for best practices, opportunities for the share group side of it, and

it’s going to be for our staffs within our companies to work together. So I think we’re probably starting to see a little bit of a seed going to develop, and the results we probably won’t really know for five to 10 years, but I do believe they’re being set today.

The ROFDA Advisory Council—will you have a role within that? Will you attend their meetings?

That’s a great question. We have some wonderful people on that; Denny Belcastro (RAC chairman, see page 11)—what a great leader, all the knowledge and experience he has. I have had a few discussions with some of the people that are on that council, and some of those discussions have been how can we position ROFDA to be on a Kroger-type model to help our retailers. It’s really looking at ways to, whether it’s Kraft or Pinnacle, reduce our costs and be very transpar-ent with the CPGs and make sure the consumer has those opportunities the CPGs put in front of us. It’s not a way to make margin; it’s a way to get it in the consumer’s hand to keep them from walking to the mass, and I think Denny is going to lead that group and be a huge part of it, and I am very open-minded to it.

ROFDA Chairman’s Report

Arter Takes Up Collaboration Mantle from Predecessor

Martin Arter, president and CEO, Affiliated Foods Midwest

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Our relationship with ROFDA has always been a very supportive and comfortable one…and has been beneficial in a num-ber of ways. The whole networking part of it has value that is sometimes hard to put a dollar measurement to. Regardless, there have been a number of times when through that interaction we’ve come away with ideas on how to improve something we’re doing or add something to what we’re doing that we didn’t know existed. That part of it has always been a real benefit for Associated Grocers of New England in that we can come away with networking ideas from other com-panies very similar to ourselves.

The networking with the CPGs, the national product companies, has always been helpful, too. We’ve built relationships over time with

some of them that have been long lasting, and when the opportunity has presented itself, having that contact person at the large CPG companies has become very helpful to us. Without ROFDA, we wouldn’t have that exposure, we wouldn’t have that opportunity to reach out and learn who these people are and then reach out to them.

For CPGs, it gives them an opportunity to know who we are and that’s one of the real advantages to ROFDA over some other national associations. It’s much easier in a smaller, more intimate group to make those connections and have some kind of long-last-ing relationship with each other.

In the last few years particularly, there have been several of the CPG companies who have brought top-to-top type individu-

als to ROFDA. Kraft is an excellent example of that, when, on several occasions, they have had their top management on the food side of their business attend ROFDA and meet with us as a group. That’s not some-thing we would have…if we went to some other national trade association function. We wouldn’t get that private time, so to speak.

And ROFDA members have done a better job of making sure we have the right people there, a good complement of people there. They go hand in hand. I think there has been improvement on both sides. ROFDA is unique in that it is CEOs that are mem-bers. I think that brings an attractiveness to ROFDA.

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The ability to take advantage of the aggre-gated purchasing opportunities is impor-tant to us at AG New England. Probably the number one case in point would be the First Data (payment processing) program. That has been extremely beneficial to our mem-bership—probably has had the most direct impact on each of our members because it’s reduced their cost of handling credit card and debit card payments.


Mike BourgoinePresident and CEOAssociated Grocers of New EnglandPembroke, New Hampshire

ROFDA and the National Grocers Association (NGA) in 2014 continued their pursuit of collaboratively serving their members well without duplicat-ing their efforts.

ROFDA’s co-op members also are members of NGA, so they have that in common. But they’re different in that ROFDA is a for-profit cooperative of coopera-tives, while NGA is a nonprofit trade association.

Their structures may be differ-ent but their ultimate goal is the success of the independent grocery sector.

There are five areas the two groups look at to identify their overlap and opportunities: Trade Relations/Industry Relations; Technology; Affinity Programs and Services; Education and Research; and Government Affairs.

According to Peter Larkin, president and CEO of NGA, during 2014, “one of the things we have continued in our working together is to make sure that we are communicat-ing on a regular basis and talking about opportunities to work together but also to make sure that nothing we are doing is duplicative. So our mantra between the two of us is to communicate, collaborate where we can and don’t dupli-cate because our members wouldn’t want us to. I think that has helped us work together and move forward together as organizations.”

Trade/industry relationsIn October 2013, several ROFDA members attended NGA’s

newly revamped Trading Partner Business Program, held in conjunction with NGA’s annual board meeting. It was the first time ROFDA members and associate members were invited to participate.

Several ROFDA members chose to attend the Trading Partner program again this year, which Larkin said had a 50 percent increase in the number of meetings held vs. last year—more than 300 in a day and a half.

Affiliated Foods Midwest, Affiliated Foods Amarillo, Associated Grocers of Florida, Associated Food Stores Salt Lake, Central Grocers, Unified Grocers and URM Stores participated in the Trading Partner business sessions this October, Larkin said, “engaged as a result of what we accom-plished last year.”

And indications are that the Trading Partner program will

only continue to grow.“So far we’ve gotten very, very, very positive reviews from

attendees that in our second year, we did a better job of making sure that the right people were there,” Larkin said. “I think our members did a lot better job of making the most out of a 30-minute meeting.

“So it was very successful, and that was a result of some of the collaboration we did with ROFDA starting last year,” he added. “They wouldn’t participate if they weren’t valuable.”

TechnologyOn technology initiatives, Larkin says he and Cameron

“continue to stay very close—communicate, don’t dupli-cate, collaborate where we can.”

Since both groups have partnered with Media Solutions, this is an area where they work on avoiding duplication.

Media Solutions works with small- to medium-size inde-pendent grocers to help them create a base digital platform for their websites “and then also, kind of layering on top of that, creating a digital/social media strategy for communicat-ing with their consumers,” according to Larkin. In addition to a website, they might help with a Facebook page or a customer texting program.

Media Solutions is “creating a digital presence for some-one that may not have otherwise been able to do because they simply don’t have the resources or the know-how to do it.”

NGA and ROFDA are seeking the same result with the Media Solutions partnership: “making sure that ROFDA members have an opportunity to pass that information on to their customers and that the broader NGA membership also has access to Media Solutions and what they bring to the table.

“So there is another example of how we’re working together and not duplicating efforts. Just making sure we can provide that same service to the broadest range of inde-pendent grocers we can.”

Affinity programsAffinity programs are perks of association membership.

For instance, NGA has had a long-standing relationship with First Data Corp., the debit and credit card processing technology solutions company, for an affinity program.

NGA members don’t have to choose to use that particular service, but if they do, “we have an arrangement with First Data that if you’re a member of NGA you get X (a certain rate),” Larkin explained. “They’re our preferred supplier and we recommend our members use them if it makes sense

for them.”This is another area the two groups are looking at criti-

cally, and some changes could be in the works, Larkin indi-cated. An affinity program that fits ROFDA members’ needs better could potentially be transferred to that organization.

That’s an example of the extent to which NGA and ROFDA are willing to go to collaborate and avoid duplication.

“We continue to talk, communicate, avoid duplications and continue to look for areas that we can work together for the benefit of the independent grocery industry,” Larkin said.

Education and researchThe NGA Show is coming up in February in Las Vegas,

and Larkin said ROFDA members have weighed in on the educational workshop track.

“ROFDA members have helped us figure out what are the most important issues, helped us put together workshops…we have our grid of our workshops out but we don’t have the specific names, but you’ll see a lot of ROFDA members popu-lated on the various workshops. Those cooperative wholesal-ers helped us put those together.”

NGA continues to grow its number of share groups—it now has seven of them representing more than 100 compa-nies and 140 people—and ROFDA also has share groups, so “we’re making sure that any share group we start is not stepping on any of the share groups that ROFDA may have for their members.”

As a rule, NGA share groups are more retail focused while ROFDA’s are more wholesale oriented, but wholesalers sometimes participate in NGA share groups if ROFDA does not have a group around a topic they’re interested in, he notes.

In terms of research, ROFDA as well as NGA continues to utilize NGA’s April 2013 Economic Impact study show-ing that the nation’s 21,000 independent grocers generate nearly $130 billion annual sales—nearly 25 percent of the total domestic market. And independent grocers provide 945,000 jobs and pay more than $30 billion in wages.

“I know ROFDA uses that data that we were able to pro-vide in a lot of their communication, so that’s an example of how something we did could benefit ROFDA’s members and their communication,” Larkin said.

When asked if the Impact Study, which Shelby Publishing Co. helped sponsor, would be updated soon, Larkin said the slow economic recovery means that the numbers likely have not changed enough at this point for it to be worth the

Peter Larkin president and CEO,

National Grocers Association

NGA and ROFDA Strive to Align But Not Overlap

Please see page 14

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FMI Enlightens ROFDA Members on Issues Including Food SafetyROFDA’s collaborative relationships extend to the Food Marketing

Institute (FMI) in Washington, D.C., which is an advocate for the food retail industry. Dr. Hilary Thesmar, Ph.D., R.D., VP of food safety pro-grams for FMI, noted that much of the communication with ROFDA members around food safety issues is handled electronically, including one webinar that has been held (see box), but the co-ops also can attend work-shops on food safety topics at FMI events such as FMI Connect and its Retail Food Safety Forum. Dr. Thesmar speaks here on the importance of the food safety:

What is the one thing that can impact your business within hours? What can impact the integrity of your brand with a single crisis? The answer to both questions is food safety. The safety of the products you source and sell are paramount to your business.

Food safety has been a non-competi-tive issue for FMI members for decades. The retail and wholesale industries have openly shared food safety infor-mation with the goal of improving food safety at retail and throughout the supply chain. By openly sharing best practices and learning from past events, we have advanced our industry’s food safety practices to help protect public health. FMI has a long history in food safety and works with many industry part-ners on food safety issues. We are pleased to be working with ROFDA to share information and collaborate on many of these issues and explore additional opportunities.

In the context of food safety, we are embarking on unchar-tered waters with the passage of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) in 2011, which was the most significant change to our food safety laws in more than 70 years. FSMA was passed by Congress after several major food safety events and the pres-sure for legislation and a change to the existing regulations was high.

For the first time, food safety plans and a hazard analy-sis will be required in warehouses and distribution centers. Wholesalers will be required to implement current good manu-facturing practices (cGMP) that includes pest control and sani-tation standard operating procedures as well as having a hazard analysis and food safety plan in place. FMI has been working with the FDA to make sure the regulations are practical and as business-friendly as possible. We have also developed a tem-plate cGMP and food safety plan for warehouses and distribu-tion centers, which we have shared with ROFDA. After the FDA publishes a final rule, we will share with the FDA to approve the plan to make inspections and enforcement simple.

The FSMA provisions impacting wholesalers include:• Preventive controls for human food which requires a hazard

analysis and food safety plan for ware houses and distribu-tion centers.

• Sanitary transportation, which impact shippers, carriers and

receivers of goods or simply trucks.• Foreign Supplier Verification, which impacts importers of

foods.In addition to the provisions that impact the type of facility,

some overarching FSMA requirements apply to the food indus-try as a whole, such as FDA’s mandatory recall authority, admin-istrative detention, records requirements, facility registration and corporate liability.

There is a lot covered in FSMA, and Congress gave FDA a lot of new authority. The goal is to protect public health, increase consumer confidence and make sure some of the major food crises of the past decade never happen again.

FMI is committed to assisting our members with the infor-mation and resources they need to source, sell and serve safe food. We welcome an open dialogue and collaboration oppor-tunities with ROFDA, because when one member of the indus-try has a crisis, everyone is affected.

Dr. Hilary ThesmarFMI’s Dr. Hilary Thesmar presented

a webinar Sept. 12 on the FSMA com-pliance changes currently in effect for whole salers and retailers. It is now available for replay and was sponsored by Park City Group, which offers the ReposiTrak food safety solution.

“Under the Food Safety Modernization Act, retailers and wholesalers are legally responsible for compliance with FSMA requirements and will be responsible for the documentation demonstrating compliance of foreign supply chains,” said Thesmar. “The new regulations will heavily focus on the verification of sup-pliers’ records and record access, which

is why we’re focused on building FSMA resources and education.”

In the webinar, Thesmar covered the breadth of documentation needed for FSMA compliance and confirmed the FDA requires all documentation be stored for a minimum of two years and must be accessible within 24 hours of request. Given this, she recommends that all wholesalers and retailers ensure they have a system to manage and retain FSMA required records prior to regulations being finalized in August 2015.

“The new FSMA requirements are very reminiscent of Sarbanes-Oxley,

where legal responsibility for ensur-ing a company’s supply chain compli-ance lies with the CEO and executive management,” said Randall K. Fields, chairman and CEO of Park City Group.

“The Compliance Management System in ReposiTrak enables retention and maintenance of all the necessary compliance and verification documents that FSMA and company risk managers require.”

The replay is available at http://repositrak.com/what-wholesalers-should-know-about-fsma-are-you-in-compliance/.

Park City Group’s FSMA Compliance Webinar Available for Replay

11


ROFDA Advisory Council Formed to Further the CollaborationThe ROFDA Advisory Council

(RAC) is all about growing business, for ROFDA members and their inde-pendent retailers as well as the sup-pliers that serve them.

Dennis J. “Denny” Belcastro, chair-man of the council for a two-year term, says the council is constantly looking at “how do we improve the ongoing relationships both of us have and create platforms for growth moving forward?”

The council has a motto to help guide it, too: “Inform, Educate and Inspire” the ROFDA membership.

The “Inform” front means providing information to them on a timely basis.

“Educate” involves making sure industry initiatives and best practices are communicated to them.

And “Inspire” means finding new ways to create value for everyone.

Belcastro, a 40-year industry veteran, started out in the independent retailer sector, and though he’s spent most of his career with large CPGs like Nabisco, Kraft and now Hillshire Brands as well as a couple of years at the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA), he says he is “thrilled” that he was selected as chairman of the RAC because he knows independents are “the entrepreneurs of the industry,” and he relishes the role he has in making sure they have the tools they need to succeed.

Deciding on directionThe RAC receives its “marching orders” from ROFDA

Chairman Martin Arter, president and CEO of Affiliated Foods Midwest, Belcastro says.

The members of the council, which represent various aspects of the business like food, equipment, distribution, services and technology (see box on page 12), came up with a list of possible “areas of opportunity or focus for ROFDA,” and Arter led them to focus on three of those.

1. Speed to marketRAC and ROFDA members want to improve speed to mar-

ket not just for new products but also for “new concepts or new merchandising ideas,” according to Belcastro. “What we have found is that the ROFDA members tend to be on the back end of getting those to market, so we want to improve the speed to market. We think, if we do that, then their profile in the industry will grow a little bit higher, too.”

One of the challenges that ROFDA is working to overcome is structural to the industry. In the last decade or so, a num-ber of major manufacturers have moved to having teams within their organizations that are dedicated to certain gro-cery chains, while ROFDA members’ independents are typi-cally represented by outside sales agencies or brokers. The dedicated focus on the chains means they typically get the new products, promotions, etc., first.

But with ROFDA’s continued efforts to get suppliers to view them as a virtual chain, with aggregated buying power, this may change.

2. Easy access to industry best practicesThe second thing is to ensure that the ROFDA web por-

tal is a destination where ROFDA members and their inde-pendent retailers can find information about industry best practices. For instance, they need to be able to find out what backhaul allowances should be, what is happening with food labels, etc.—quickly and easily, Belcastro says.

The information is out there, “but they may have had to

take a lot of man hours to navigate getting it,” he said. “This way, if we funnel it to ROFDA, then it becomes an attribute and a benefit of ROFDA to their members.”

The National Grocers Association (NGA), a collaborator with ROFDA already, is a good source of best practices information for independents in an encapsulated form.

3. Category leadership platforms“The third big area is to better understand where the

market place and where manufacturers are placing their bets moving forward,” Belcastro said.

Market research and shopper insights, often performed by large CPGs, are conducted and then analyzed to figure out “what we should be doing or what we shouldn’t be doing,” he said.

“Much of that shopper insight leads to what I would call ‘category leadership platforms,’” Belcastro continued, using protein as a broad example.

“Consumers want to add higher levels of protein to their diet. So, where in the store is protein is located and how can we get protein platforms built so that the retailer can then ask the manufacturers, ‘who can help me in meat? Who can help me in shakes? Who can help me create a higher awareness of protein for my consumers?’”

Denny Belcastro

“…the vendor community has stepped up to bring solutions that ultimately provide more value to independents.

—Francis Cameron, ROFDA

Please see page 12

12


When I took over the helm at URM (in March 2013), there was a great peer group of seasoned CEOs at ROFDA. At that time, I was able to discuss openly about things that were going on within our company, and they were able to provide very frank and direct comments to help me navigate as I was get-ting my feet on the ground as the new CEO of URM.

Now, there isn’t a ROFDA meeting that goes by that I don’t come back to URM with a new idea to try. Usually I have more than one idea to try, something to look at, some-thing to explore or something that was raised in a meeting that, quite honestly, I had never thought of.

Plus, ROFDA still allows plenty of time for

the CEOs to get together and discuss busi-ness in general. We may be thinking about the same thing, but they may have a vendor or service they’re currently using and provide a great resource…Some are expense con-trols or for the distribution center, whether that’s in transportation or warehousing. We do benchmark our warehousing against all of ROFDA warehouses. It gives us a great measuring stick in terms of how we’re doing against like companies.

■ ■ ■

At the ROFDA conferences, we are exposed to a lot of different services and programs that we wouldn’t normally get exposed to here in Spokane, Washington. It

allows us to be able to talk directly with the senior management of the vendor commu-nity or the service provider to be able to get some things started.

The other side of this is the aggregation of volume in terms of the ROFDA warehouses working together to procure product that does lower the cost for all of our indepen-dents. It may not be the best program or the best timing for us, but it seems like a true commitment and willingness from all the ROFDA warehouses to try and do something to aggregate the overall volume.

We want to communicate to the CPG companies to treat us as one and expect the same results as you would with a direct chain. We’re not asking to be treated

any differently; we’re asking to be treated the same. And if they have certain levels of expectations or volumes, you can expect that from us as well.

In the next three months at URM, we’re implementing two programs that did come from ROFDA; that’s a direct result of vendors attending the conferences and sitting down and talking to us and identifying some things that we need to do better here at URM.


Ray SprinklePresident and CEOURM StoresSpokane, Washington

Having face-to-face conversations with the other CEOs, we built a relationship to get our warehouse director into another member’s facility, helping us build and manage our incentive program for our ware-house employees. It has been a win for our company and our employees.

■ ■ ■

ROFDA has provided opportunities for us to sit down with technology companies offer-ing online shopping, in-store smartphone programs. There are a lot of programs to choose from. Each store seems to have a dif-ferent initiative. Rosie (rosieapp.com) is one

of those companies that comes to mind.

■ ■ ■

ROFDA aggregates our retailers’ front-end swipe fees. This has been a great program and continues to be as the rates have been reduced.


Randall SimonPresident and CEOCERTCO Inc.Madison, Wisconsin

Other such platforms might include health & well-ness or better-for-you products.

At the ROFDA Fall Conference in Lost Pines, Texas, Nov. 7-10, an “open meeting” is scheduled, moder-ated by ROFDA-appointed consultant Paul Adams, for associate members of ROFDA to talk about those key issues.

General information will be given, “and then indi-vidual work streams will happen within the room that will be captained by a ROFDA RAC member as well as someone from the ROFDA distribution network that is considered a ‘champion.’”

A “ROFDA Champion” is appointed by the ROFDA board to be Cameron’s point of contact at a member company beyond the president and CEO.

Belcastro envisions “some pilot projects to get this thing going rather than trying to get all for one and one for all because it will take a while to build con-sensus.”

Boots on the groundFrancis Cameron, president and CEO of ROFDA,

will coordinate with the RAC on how the programs built around those goals are carried out with ROFDA member warehouses.

While RAC meets formally twice a year at both the spring and fall ROFDA Conferences, “periodically through the year we meet via conference call to talk

through key initiatives or key areas of opportunity that are either going on within ROFDA that need to be bet-ter communicated and networked, or things going on broader in the industry that ROFDA and their key mem-bers need to be aware of, informed and educated on,” Belcastro said.

He added that the makeup of the RAC was by design.

“When trying to look at best practices, it can’t be best practices in just one area. If you’re really going to try to create value, then you have to think about it holistically across the supply chain,” he said. “Technology is important; analytics of data is impor-tant; getting the product to market, the sales and marketing aspects are important. So we tried to build a team that would have those represented.”

Belcastro says if other areas of focus emerge in the future needing representation on the RAC, new mem-bers could be added.

Belcastro illustrates how he views the role of the RAC: “If you and I were sitting here and trying to build a jig-saw puzzle, we would see the pretty picture on the box. We know what it’s supposed to look like, but once we open it up, all it is is a bunch of pieces. What we’re try-ing to do with the ROFDA Advisory Council is to take the pieces and build the corners. The first thing we look at is how do we frame this in, how do we build all the straight edges around the puzzle? Now that we have that, we think we can now start building and getting this picture to be much clearer to everybody.”

RAC Members Represent Various Industry Segments

The first ROFDA Advisory Council (RAC), appointed in February 2014, might be considered the next generation of ROFDA’s Associate Member Advisory Group, whose primary role was to provide input on the programming for the spring and fall conferences.

RAC is active year-round, providing ROFDA leadership with “input, information and feedback representing the interests of ROFDA’s associates and suppliers in support of ROFDA’s mission”—which is to help them provide added value to their independent retail grocer members.

While the RAC meets officially at the two conferences, there is regular communication among the members, according to RAC Chairman Dennis “Denny” Belcastro, SVP of government affairs and industry collaboration for Hillshire Brands.

RAC is made up of seven associates, with appointments made by a group including ROFDA chairman, Martin Arter, president and CEO of Affiliated Foods Midwest; ROFDA staff; and the immediate past Associate Member Advisory Group. Six of them serve concurrent two-year terms with the ROFDA chairman. One “at-large” council-person serves a two-year staggered term to create continuity from one council to the next.

Serving with Belcastro on the inaugural RAC:• Rick Brindle, VP, Mondele–z International• George Eversman, VP of retail channels, DOT Foods• Lance Oelke, managing partner, SJT LLC• John Latham, director of business development, Topco Associates• Christina Romas, director of business development,

Park City Group• Brad Thomas, VP of sales-South, MOM Brands.

Advisory Council From page 11

13


Bob Ketchner has been with Olean Wholesale Grocery Co-op for 16 years, but only took the reins as president and CEO of the Olean, New York-based co-op on Oct. 1 this year.

In his first three weeks at the helm, he’d already had confer-ence calls with other ROFDA CEOs in addition to time with them at two ROFDA conferences last fall and this spring.

“I’ve been getting my feet wet and, meeting them, I can’t say enough nice things,” Ketchner said. “The openness of the CEOs of the ROFDA warehouses; they’re very open and welcoming and so reassuring and positive. It’s not like you’re competing; they want everybody to succeed and they’re willing to be a resource to anybody, and I think that’s an incredible thing.

“Everybody has businesses to run and you’re facing similar challenges. But it’s pretty amazing, the openness of these gentle-men that have welcomed me in,” he said. “I can’t thank them enough.”

He appreciates the good friends and connections he’s made, and describes ROFDA as “an amazing networking group.

“The people that you can actually associate yourself with, and your business with, and then you can reach out to these people as resources—that’s priceless,” Ketchner said. “I truly believe that what you get out of ROFDA is what you put into it. If you put in the effort and make the connections and make the friends, I think you will get more out of it than if you don’t. You’ll get out of it what you put into it.”

New CEO once was a restaurateurKetchner’s early career revolved around food, but it was on the restaurant side of the

industry.“I went to school and got a degree in business finance and upon grad-

uating, I opened my own bar and restaurant (in Olean) and I operated that for a little over three years,” Ketchner said. “I would have probably kept it, but my wife and I decided to start a family, and that was not going to work, being in the bar and restaurant business and trying to start a family. So I sold the business and I took a job with a manage-ment services company and I did that for about three years. It was in the healthcare industry.”

His next move was applying for and getting an accounting job at Olean Wholesale. The company brought him on board as a senior accountant. He stayed in that position for a little more than two years, and then was given the opportunity to be in charge of accounting for Olean’s corpo-rately owned stores. He stayed in that position for a little more than two years as well.

“Then I went back to the accounting department and was the direc-tor of the accounting department at that point in time,” Ketchner said. “That was the retail accounting, and we did the financial statements for about 72 of our retail members. I was the director of the retail account-ing department for about four years. My boss at the time said he was going to retire, and I was promoted to the director of financial services.”

In the fall of 2013, Ketchner was promoted to VP and COO and spent his time under the tutelage of Jim Ried, former Olean Wholesale presi-dent and CEO, who retired Sept. 30. Ried was generous with his time and attention.

“I’ve worked with Jim for the 16 years that I’ve been here, but to actu-ally one-on-one work with him for a full solid year was very, very benefi-cial for me,” Ketchner said.

He observed what Ried did every day, watched his management style and learned how he did things.

“I got a solid background on the day-to-day running of this company,” he said. “I thought I had a pretty good idea, but I didn’t realize how much there was actually to learn in a year.

“I was afforded the opportunity to basically sit in on every department management meeting for the last year or so and I was able to immerse myself in every department in the building to learn what they did,” Ketchner said. “To actually be involved in their decision-making and day-to-day, week-to-week operations, that was very important to me.”

Ketchner had time to think about what kind of president and CEO he would be.

“The whole time learning how (Ried) did things, that wasn’t necessar-ily how I was going to do things,” Ketchner said. “I wanted to take every good thing he had to bring to the table and then still I have my visions of what we can do to improve this company on a go-forward basis.”

Ketchner seemed destined for the jobKetchner, who was born and raised in Olean, was not shy in the first

interview he had with the wholesale company.“My love affair with Olean Wholesale has been kind of unique. When I

interviewed with the company over 16 years ago, the boss that hired me at the time, said, ‘OK, if I hired you today, what do you see yourself doing in five years?’ And I said, ‘well, I want to learn as much as I can, I want to

grow with the company, to be available for the next opportunity.’”When asked about his vision for 10 years in the future, Ketchner replied, “I want your job.”“He just kind of looked at me and said, ‘OK’… Didn’t faze him,” Ketchner said.At the end of their time together, the interviewer asked about his long-term goal.“Ultimately, I want to run this company,” Ketchner told him. “I want to be the president

and CEO of this company someday.”It was the cooperative mentality of Olean Wholesale and the story behind the business

that captivated Ketchner.“What Olean Wholesale stood for, what its members meant to the business—by the end

of the interview I knew that’s what I wanted,” he said. “I wanted to part of something that big, and I was going to do everything in my power to make sure that I was always in consid-eration for whatever opportunities may arise.”

Sixteen years later, the ultimate opportunity he’d hoped for presented itself and Ketchner was ready.

“People think I’m weird, but that’s been my story since day one,” Ketchner said. “I knew that from before I was offered a job here that if I had the opportunity, that’s what I wanted to do. It’s amazing…the years have flown by; 16 great years of learning and getting to know our members and know our business. It’s been a pretty good ride so far.

“I think I’m going to love it,” he said.Olean currently has 144 members, and “that number is growing as we speak,” Ketchner

said. “We also service probably another 100 non-members, mostly convenience store type locations. If you look at all of our member stores and non-member business, we service two universities, we supply a couple of other wholesale companies. We probably have footprints in over 300 businesses.”

Thanks ROFDA for your ongoing efforts in keeping Independents strong and successful, now and in the future!

America’s Specialized Food Brokers

Ric Larsen [email protected]

Val Clawson [email protected]

DeJarnett W-ROFDA 122014.indd 1 10/23/14 10:15 AM

Bob Ketchner

ROFDA’s Newest Board Member

Olean’s New CEO Appreciates ROFDA’s Welcoming Environment

14


investment.“My feeling is right now that we

still have a ways to go in making sure that people understand the $130 billion number and 1 million jobs number, etc.,” he said.

Government relationsThis is an area where NGA is

the expert of the pair. It provides ROFDA members with informa-tion about legislative and regu-latory issues on a regular basis. Larkin or his NGA colleague Greg Ferrara attend ROFDA’s spring and fall conferences to provide a Washington update.

NGA also actively seeks input from Cameron and his members “on what government relations issues are important, what he’s hearing. And whenever we have an action alert on a particular sub-ject, Francis is on our mailing list. That’s one of those areas where we take the lead and probably will continue to do so for the foresee-able future.”

At the end of the day, it “con-tinues to be a very, very good relationship between the two orga-nizations, and I see it, based on my relationship with Francis and his not only with me but the rest of our staff, I continue to see great things in our collective futures.”

Obviously, what happens in the elections is going to have a dramatic impact on what happens at the end of this year, before the current Congress would adjourn, and it would have a very important impact on the issues…going into 2015 and beyond.

I wish my crystal ball was crystal clear...but I still believe that the chances of the Senate flipping enough to switch control to the Republican party is still likely although it’s certainly not a slam-dunk. There are a lot of states that are having very, very close Senate races. There may be some runoffs in some states, like Georgia, that we may not even know the results until into early 2015.

I believe Republicans will pick up seats in the House, kind of padding their major-ity. And then, interestingly, there are...I’d say 10-plus, governor’s races that are so close or changing between now and election day to the point that we may have some flip-flops in terms of who controls the governorships in many, many states.

Most people are talking about the Senate and the House and President Obama and his favorable ratings but not too many are talking about those governor’s races. And Georgia is another one…that’s going to be a very, very interesting race...

If we don’t have the control of the Senate figured out until early 2015, it probably means the lame duck session when they

come back is not going to be all that produc-tive.

If Republicans get control and they know they have control, then that puts a different spin on what may or may not get done in the lame duck session. But it surely would impact, going forward in 2015, the way Congress deals with a lot of issues during the president’s final two years of his term.

…Let’s say Republicans get control of the Senate; they’ve had control in the House. They’re going to pass a lot of legislation and get it to the president’s desk and force him to either sign or veto a lot of bills he’d rather not see.

And it will certainly end the gridlock, at least from Capitol Hill flowing to the White House. That may not end the gridlock of any-thing getting accomplished because it may be pass a lot, veto a lot. They will not have enough control even if they get control, to override vetoes. Or it’s very unlikely, depend-ing on the issue.

NGA’s primary issues— healthcare and ‘extenders’

One of the issues we’re looking at either for lame duck or for next year is, of course, healthcare.

We’re still looking at what’s the full-time

definition for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and we’re working with our mem-bers to explain how the 30-hour definition was going to have a detrimental effect on the supermarket industry.

On tax reform, there are a number of differ-ent scenarios, but we are really focused on a couple of key provisions in terms of making sure that some of the tax credits, what we call at NGA the “extenders,” bonus deprecia-tion, work opportunity tax credit, all those things, get re-enacted. We’re also trying to preserve LIFO as an accepted accounting practice. It sounds very mundane and tech-nical, but LIFO repeal would cost ROFDA members and NGA members millions and millions and millions of dollars. They’d have to pay, essentially, back taxes just because of the change in accounting methods. Frankly, that cash is not sitting here just waiting to be paid to the federal government. So that’s a big one.

Of course, we have a long laundry list of issues we’re working on, regulatory and leg-islative, but those are the two that we should focus on.

NGA and ROFDA...From page 9 General Election Results Rife with Implications

Larkin took a few minutes to look at some possible scenarios following the Nov. 4 general elections and to highlight the two big issues NGA is keeping its eye on. Here are some excerpts from his comments.

19


Being a member of ROFDA allows us to share information that can improve our operation. We also have new ideas to carry

to our retailers as a result of what we have learned from other ROFDA members.

In addition, our ROFDA connection has

allowed us to improve our information shar-ing between members.


Stan AlexanderPresident and CEOAssociated Grocers of the SouthBirmingham, Alabama

The advantage and benefit for our com-pany of being a member of ROFDA is the opportunity to interact with our fellow retailer-owned companies, their chief execu-tives and key personnel, to share ideas and concepts and business opportunities and to collaborate on the resolution of industry issues and matters in a cordial and a social fashion.

Aggregated buying is absolutely helping our company, and we can pass that on to our member retailers. In fact, some of the collaborative buying opportunities have been very beneficial for our members and we’re quite excited about that. I see that continuing to grow.

We do find that vendors are willing to work with us in a collaborative fashion and in an

aggregated fashion. They see that we’re able to execute favorably in getting that done, and I think that has been very beneficial.

…And at our conferences, vendors see that we have a collegial attitude toward one another, a cooperative and a collaborative spirit to do things together because we all serve the same constituents—independent grocers. I think it has been a very eye-opening

experience for many vendors to see that level of support and cooperation.


Jay CampbellPresident and CEOAssociated GrocersBaton Rouge, Louisiana

Scenes from ROFDA’s Spring Conference in Park City, Utah, May 16-19, 2014

Gov. Mike Leavitt; Rich McKeown, Leavitt Partners; Francis Cameron, ROFDA CEO. Mike Burgoine, AG New England; Rick and Peggy Maier, Bunzl Distribution.

Aptaris’ Tom and Lynne O’Reilly flank Jon and Beverly Rector (center).Kim and Ray Sprinkle, URM Stores; Julie and Bill Hatcher, Diversified Logistics.

20


NCB: Co-op Revenues Up 3.6 Percent in 2013Each October, which is National Co-op Month, the

National Cooperative Bank, known for providing banking solutions tailored to meet the needs of cooperatives nation-wide, releases its NCB Co-op 100, the nation’s only report listing the nation’s top 100 revenue-earning cooperative businesses.

In 2013, these businesses posted revenue totaling approx-imately $234.5 billion, a 3.6 percent increase from 2012.

“The theme for co-op month this year is ‘Co-ops Connecting.’ NCB’s report, along with our role in educating the public about the impact of cooperatives, are two ways the bank can connect with the community and showcase the economic contribution of this business model,” said Charles E. Snyder, president and CEO of National Cooperative Bank, Washington, D.C. “We hope more co-ops celebrate their successes and con-nect in the community to share their stories.”

The NCB list includes companies in industries including agriculture, hardware and lumber, finance, healthcare, and energy and communications, as well as grocery.

The top three co-ops are in the agriculture field: CHS Inc., by far the largest with $44.5 billion in revenues, followed by Land O’ Lakes Inc. at $14.2 billion and Dairy Farmers of America at $12.9 billion.

Grocery appears on the list at number four, with Wakefern Food Corp in Keasbey, New Jersey, reporting $11.5 billion in revenue. It was No. 4 on last year’s list as well.

The next grocery co-op on the list is Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc., based in Kansas City, Kansas, with revenue of $8.4 billion at No. 6 on the list, same as last year.

ROFDA members begin appearing at No. 12: Unified Grocers in Commerce, Calif., with $3.7 billion in revenues; they were $3.8 billion last year.

The group’s remaining members’ rankings:• 20: Central Grocers Cooperative, Franklin Park, Illinois (Ken

Nemeth, CEO), with nearly $2.1 billion in revenues, up from $1.97 billion last year.

• 23: Associated Food Stores, Salt Lake City, Utah (Neal Berube, CEO), with $1.9 billion in revenues, down slightly from $2 billion last year.

• 34: Affiliated Foods Midwest, Norfolk, Nebraska (Martin Arter, CEO), with more than $1.4 billion in revenues, down slightly from $1.5 billion last year.

• 59: URM Stores, Spokane, Washington (Ray Sprinkle, CEO), with $985 million in revenues, up from $957 million last year.

• 84: Piggly Wiggly Alabama, Bessemer, Alabama (David Bullard, CEO), with $740 million in revenues, up from $734 bil-lion last year.

• 91: Associated Grocers Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana (J.H. Campbell Jr., CEO), with $717 million in revenues, up from $685 million last year.

• 99: Associated Grocers of Florida Inc., Pompano Beach, Florida (Christopher Miller, president), made the 2013 list with

revenues of $635 million, up from $617 million in 2012.

ACE Hardware, based in Oakbrook, Illinois, earned $3.9 billion in revenue and came in at No. 9 on the list. ACE operates stores within grocery stores in some markets. Its revenues were up from $3.8 billion the year before.

NCB provides financing to support the growth and expansion of cooperative businesses, while also deploy-ing hundreds of millions of dollars to support underserved communities and cooperative expansion initiatives. Co-ops provide more than 2 million jobs and create more than $75 billion in annual wages with revenue of nearly $650 billion.

Although similar to other business models, a cooperative has several unique features. It is owned and controlled by its members, who have joined together to use the coopera-tive’s goods, services and facilities. A board of directors, elected by the membership, sets the cooperative’s policies and procedures. By pooling resources, members can lever-age their shared power to buy, sell, market or bargain as one group, achieving economies of scale and sharing in any profits generated.

NCB has offices in Alaska, California, New York, Ohio and Virginia. To learn more, visit www.ncb.coop, National Cooperative Bank on Facebook, or on Twitter @ coopbanking.

Wholesalers Provide the Competitive Edge forToday’s Omni-Channel Promotionsby Tom O’ReillyCEO, Aptaris

Wholesalers hold the key to helping the retailers they serve maintain their long-held

competitive advantage of understanding what shoppers want and delivering on that.

Companies like Kroger, Walmart and Amazon are using data mining, highly tar-geted shopper marketing, sophisticated

scan-based promotions and omni-channel outreach to win in the marketplace.

Wholesalers play a pivotal role in the competitive response to these efforts. Working together closely with vendors and

using state-of-the-art promotions manage-ment approaches, wholesalers can increase vendor funding, facilitate shopper engage-ment and bring better promotions to market for higher volume and higher margin.

Wholesalers can:• Automate connections to ven-

dors, enter deals directly into the system and streamline negotia-tions;

• Coordinate marketing, merchan-dising and advertising teams, processes, systems and data with store operations for an agile pro-cess that brings the best deals to market fast;

• Effectively use scanner data for ROI-based promotions that tap into bigger vendor funding budgets;

• Facilitate the use of new media and an omni-channel approach with targeted messages that engage shoppers.

Wholesalers can add value in new ways in what has always been an intensely competitive business. Working together for rewarding and effective promotions is the key to maintaining a profitable and sus-tainable competitive edge.

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Bunzl Revs Up Total Category Management Approach to Drive ROFDA Growthby Derek Goodin Bunzl Distribution Division President

Bunzl Distribution is proud to partner with ROFDA members to take packaging programs and supply chains to new heights. The company is committed to helping ROFDA members achieve their missions in 2015 and beyond.

Bunzl’s growth-oriented pro-grams are custom designed to help reach sales goals while producing guaranteed savings. In order to promote contin-ued success, Bunzl is invigorating its supply chain optimiza-tion solutions to help clients “Think Big.”

Bunzl wants to give ROFDA members new solutions and a fresh approach to driving sales and streamlining opera-tions—the approach is called total category management (TCM). By analyzing sales data against the data of other retailers, Bunzl can put clients in packaging programs to drive sales growth. Having the right assortment merchan-dised correctly with the best packaging will give stores a profitable lift in the fresh bakery, meat, produce and deli departments.

Bunzl’s TCM approach will help ROFDA and its retailers:• Reduce Costs• Lower Inventory• Merchandise Better• Create Efficient Assortments

By collaborating as trading partners, these four levers of TCM are strengthened.

Reduce CostsOne of the most effective ways to reduce costs is to study

the flow of supplies. In most cases, consolidating vendors and using the correct product assortment produces imme-diate savings. With a consolidator like Bunzl, multiple ven-dor deliveries, purchase orders and payable accounts are eliminated. Handling one delivery, one PO and one AP rela-tionship reduces labor costs.

Combined purchasing power can achieve greater guar-anteed savings on quality products. Bunzl’s goal is to help ROFDA member companies be their customers’ first choice for all perishable department supplies.

Lower InventoryCross-docking is another money-saving method to con-

sider. Bunzl pioneered cross-docking to help customers reduce their inventory and free up working capital and valu-able warehouse space for SKUs that generate more revenue per square foot than supplies.

Bunzl can deliver store-built pallets to warehouses for loading directly onto trucks with customers’ orders. This saves labor on unloading, stocking and reloading.

With Bunzl as a “virtual warehouse,” ROFDA members have access to more than 375,000 SKUs nationally. This provides unrivaled product availability, just-in-time delivery and high fill rates.

Merchandise BetterIn order to merchandise better, stores need to find a good

balance of quality and cost of goods. Some distributors pro-mote lower-quality products and hope they will work. Not Bunzl, which has a process involving finding the right product to drive sales at the best cost.

Bunzl also can help retailers when they build or remodel stores. Bunzl offers store-fixture consolidation and logis-tics, innovative signage and display solutions. And the

company works alongside several large retailers to get their stores open weeks earlier than they were able to on their own. Partnering with Bunzl leads to incremental sales and better financial results.

Create Efficient AssortmentsRetailers study their center-store sales data to make sure

they have the right assortment of products for their custom-ers. Why not help them apply these same principals in their fresh departments?

By examining what’s selling in the store perimeter, Bunzl can enhance shopper loyalty and profits by having the right assortment of packaging that delights shoppers, increases sales and enhances the store brand image. Bunzl’s 400 sales consultants are delivering packaging solutions to retailers right now that help take them to the next level.

Putting Bunzl TCM to WorkBunzl’s supply chain experts continually review opera-

tions so they can recommend and implement supply chain improvements that position ROFDA members for success over the long haul. Collaboration ensures that the right products are in the right place at the right price.

When the supply chain operates at peak efficiency, Bunzl’s clients can focus on growing their core businesses.

Bunzl is there to help clients “Think Big” and achieve their business goals.

With more than 30 years of experience developing packaging programs for supermarkets, Bunzl is ready to take ROFDA’s program to the next level.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, call Sandy Rogers at 888-997-5959.

Derek Goodin

22


1 Oscar Mayer Rfg Bacon 5,350,073 22.11 5.04 0.03

2 Private Label Rfg Bacon 5,184,147 13.33 4.78 0.66

3 Nobrand Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 4,312,773 14.37 7.37 0.52

4 Ball Park Rfg Frankfurters 3,402,157 8.08 3.87 0.34

5 Private Label Rfg Dinner Sausage 2,931,646 4.94 4.37 0.19

6 Hillshire Farm Deli Select Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 2,679,749 8.70 3.94 (0.27)

7 Hillshire Farm Rfg Dinner Sausage 2,395,574 (0.49) 3.54 0.01

8 Private Label Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 2,183,169 (1.86) 3.91 0.34

9 Oscar Mayer Rfg Frankfurters 1,927,105 (8.43) 3.42 0.04

10 Oscar Mayer Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 1,796,016 (8.04) 3.10 (0.04)

Dollar SalesDollar Sales

% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit

Avg. Price/Unit Chg v

YAgo

ALBANY, NYMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14


2 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 24,551,016 (9.45) 4.03 0.05


4 Private Label Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 22,949,624 40.69 7.65 0.87



7 Oscar Mayer Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 19,381,774 (9.80) 3.50 0.06

8 Johnsonville Rfg Dinner Sausage 17,962,350 10.40 4.30 0.24

9 Hillshire Farm Deli Select Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 17,714,738 (3.98) 3.78 (0.13)

10 Smithfield Rfg Bacon 16,459,993 18.25 4.88 0.55


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

BALTIMORE, MDMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14








8 Lunchables Rfg Meat/Cheese/Cracker/Dessert 5,898,867 85.48 2.03 (0.17)


10 Al Fresco Rfg Dinner Sausage 5,662,381 16.70 4.37 0.01


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

BOSTON, MAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14


2 Sahlen Rfg Frankfurters 10,726,983 6.76 8.71 0.84





7 Hillshire Farm Rfg Dinner Sausage 6,006,782 1.11 3.21 0.05



10 Zweigles Pop Open Rfg Frankfurters 4,945,247 7.26 5.08 0.63


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

BUFFALO / ROCHESTER, NYMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

DeliTOP 10


2 Tyson Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 15,210,623 41.03 6.32 1.04

3 Oscar Mayer Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 14,477,845 4.57 2.91 (0.12)

4 Private Label Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 13,952,432 4.05 4.02 0.10





9 Oscar Mayer Rfg Frankfurters 10,663,452 5.93 2.40 (0.08)

10 Nobrand Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 10,427,807 (20.62) 7.08 0.74


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

BIRMINGHAM / MONTGOMERY, ALMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14








8 Ball Park Rfg Frankfurters 11,371,432 (2.12) 3.55 0.10

9 Jimmy Dean Rfg Breakfast Sausage/Ham 10,219,330 (1.35) 4.01 0.65



% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

ATLANTA, GAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14










10 Jimmy Dean Rfg Breakfast Sausage/Ham 6,486,518 0.51 3.97 0.70


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

CHARLOTTE, NCMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

1 Oscar Mayer Rfg Bacon 38,264,028 (0.26) 5.20 0.72





6 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 16,758,208 (6.50) 3.73 (0.03)




10 Private Label Rfg Dinner Sausage 14,027,533 2.61 3.73 (0.21)


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

CHICAGO, ILMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

23







6 Bob Evans Rfg Breakfast Sausage/Ham 8,941,557 0.84 3.33 0.33






% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

CINCINNATI / DAYTON, OHMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14


2 Sugardale Rfg Bacon 7,029,748 4.41 4.62 0.57










% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

CLEVELAND, OHMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14







7 Oscar Mayer Deli Fresh Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 12,636,620 1.84 3.63 0.20



10 Hillshire Farm Deli Select Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 10,218,956 11.41 3.32 0.09


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

DETROIT, MIMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14








8 Eckrich Rfg Dinner Sausage 17,995,696 8.44 3.54 0.09




% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

DALLAS / FT. WORTH, TXMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

24













% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

JACKSONVILLE, FLMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

DeliTOP 10












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

DENVER, COMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14




4 Private Label Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 6,344,355 (7.40) 7.79 0.38








% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

GRAND RAPIDS, MIMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14







7 Hummel Bros Rfg Frankfurters 5,419,275 3.93 8.68 0.22





% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

HARTFORD, CT / SPRINGFIELD, MAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

HOUSTON, TXMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

INDIANAPOLIS, INMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

1 Farmland Rfg Bacon 12,089,432 20.24 4.17 0.33


3 Oscar Mayer Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 9,066,237 0.62 2.79 0.05




7 Lunchables Rfg Meat/Cheese/Cracker/Dessert 5,856,729 88.92 1.58 0.08





% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

KANSAS CITY, KSMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14







7 Farmer John Rfg Bacon 27,259,112 3.93 5.75 0.82





% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

LOS ANGELES, CAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

888-997-5959 | www.bunzldistribution.com

Bunzl SE ROSDA 1214.indd 1 10/10/14 9:22 AM

For over six decades, Pilgrim’s has produced healthy, high-quality food products that go into some of the world’s finest recipes. We are dedicated to providing these wholesome, high-quality products at a great

value, allowing everyone to eat well.

pilgrims.com

All about great taste

Pilgrims W ROFDA 122014.indd 1 10/30/14 12:17 PM

27













% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

MILWAUKEE, WIMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

DeliTOP 10









9 Fischers Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 3,640,092 2.49 1.55 0.02



% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

LOUISVILLE, KYMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

MIAMI / FT. LAUDERDALE, FLMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14



3 Our Certified Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 10,987,452 6.60 4.77 0.42


5 Hormel Black Label Rfg Bacon 10,239,227 8.62 5.83 0.69

6 Private Label Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 10,195,153 2.56 4.13 (0.01)




10 Hormel Always Tender Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 5,975,232 (2.01) 6.31 0.69


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL, MNMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14








8 Odoms Tennessee Pride Rfg Breakfast Sausage/Ham 5,435,485 8.43 3.73 0.41




% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

NASHVILLE, TNMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14


2 Premio Rfg Dinner Sausage 35,223,272 16.79 4.53 0.51





7 Sabrett Rfg Frankfurters 19,466,192 (2.96) 5.86 0.65


9 Specialty Foods Nathans Famous Rfg Frankfurters 17,372,292 (48.70) 4.41 (0.11)



% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

NEW YORK, NYMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14








8 Kayem Old Tyme Rfg Frankfurters 6,390,915 11.16 7.00 0.30


10 Hormel Black Label Rfg Bacon 5,614,794 13.30 5.88 0.89


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

NEW ENGLANDMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14







7 Conecuh Rfg Dinner Sausage 8,992,057 0.01 4.98 0.21





% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

NEW ORLEANS, LA / MOBILE, ALMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

28






5 IBP Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 4,384,795 23.89 3.90 0.22







% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

OMAHA, NEMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

DeliTOP 10










10 Bar S Rfg Frankfurters 10,120,804 3.66 1.25 (0.01)


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

PHOENIX / TUCSON, AZMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14






6 Interstate Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 5,669,783 14.99 5.70 0.09






% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

PORTLAND, ORMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

SACRAMENTO, CAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14


2 Sugardale Rfg Bacon 11,233,223 (1.10) 4.53 0.69








10 Uncle Charleys Rfg Dinner Sausage 3,862,505 8.02 5.14 0.26


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

PITTSBURGH, PAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14





5 Dietz & Watson Rfg Frankfurters 9,120,484 0.72 6.95 0.51







% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

PHILADELPHIA, PAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14






6 Private Label Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 11,426,782 10.35 3.79 (0.01)






% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

RICHMOND / NORFOLK, VAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

RALEIGH / GREENSBORO, NCMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

29



2 Farmland Rfg Bacon 11,624,246 (5.22) 5.71 0.76










% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

ST. LOUIS, MOMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14




4 Bar S Rfg Frankfurters 15,867,925 7.20 1.14 (0.01)


6 Bar S Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 13,120,687 7.41 1.64 (0.06)






% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

WEST TEXAS / NEW MEXICOMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14






6 Private Label Rfg Bacon 6,359,818 4.61 0.46



9 Farmer John Rfg Bacon 4,637,990 2.66 5.65 0.69



% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

SAN DIEGO, CAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14






6 Hillshire Farm Deli Select Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 8,943,996 (0.62) 3.87 0.10


8 Aidells Rfg Dinner Sausage 7,390,691 0.98 6.03 (0.07)




% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

SAN FRANCISCO / OAKLAND, CAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14



3 Interstate Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 6,102,420 63.28 6.57 0.70

4 Land O Frost Premium Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 6,023,800 (1.05) 3.89 (0.05)





9 Bar S Rfg Frankfurters 4,106,402 0.41 1.30 0.02



% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

SALT LAKE CITY, UTMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14












% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

SEATTLE / TACOMA, WAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

DeliTOP 10





5 Carolina Pride Rfg Sliced Lunchmeat 16,010,954 30.37 1.45 (0.01)





10 Nobrand Rfg Uncooked Meats (No Poultry) 13,627,415 (26.40) 7.17 0.74


% v YAgoAvg. Price/

Unit


YAgo

SOUTH CAROLINAMULTI-OUTLETLatest 52 Weeks Ending 9/7/14

Information represents retail sales data for the top 10 brands/ categories for the 52-week period ended Sept. 7, 2014. Figures include supermarkets, drugstores, mass market retailers, military commissaries and select club and dollar retail chains. Data provid-ed by IRI, a Chicago-based market research firm, @iriworldwide.

THE BOARD“These member presidents and CEOs bring unique qualities and abilities that provide strength to the whole.”

Francis Cameron, ROFDA President & CEO

BOB LINGPresident & CEO,

Unified Grocers Inc.

BOB KETCHNERPresident & CEO, Olean

Wholesale Grocery Co-op Inc.

MIKE BOURGOINEPresident & CEO, Associated Grocers of New England Inc.

STAN ALEXANDERPresident & CEO, Associated

Grocers of the South Inc.

DAVID BULLARDPresident & CEO,

Piggly Wiggly Alabama Dist. Co. Inc.

JAY CAMPBELLPresident & CEO,

Associated Grocers Inc.

KEN NEMETHPresident & CEO,

Central Grocers Inc.

MARTIN ARTERPresident & CEO, Affiliated Foods

Midwest Cooperative Inc.

RAY SPRINKLEPresident & CEO, URM Stores Inc.

CHRISTOPHERMILLER

President, Associated Grocers of Florida Inc.

RANDY SIMONPresident & CEO, CERTCO Inc.

RANDY ARCENEAUXPresident & CEO, Affiliated Foods Inc.

NEAL BERUBEPresident & CEO,

Associated Food Stores Inc.

FRANCIS CAMERONPresident & CEO, ROFDA

30


the rofda report 2014

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