FMI Rebrands, Nixes 'Marketing Institute'

Already in 2020, we've seen two organizations changing their brand identities with similar goals of broadening their representation of the industry. Just last week, the Grocery Manufacturing Association became the Consumer Brands Association, and now it's the Food Marketing Institute's (FMI) turn. 

FMI is now officially FMI - The Food Industry Association. According to the trade organization, the move supports a more interconnected supply chain, with retail as the heart of the food industry. FMI recently expanded its membership to facilitate this evolving view.

"Over the last two years, we’ve inspired a recommitment, a renewal of vows among the FMI membership," said Joe Sheridan, president and COO of Keasbey, N.J.-based Wakefern Food Corp., and chairman of the FMI board of directors. "We’ve even changed who can be a member in the association as a logical step in a direction we’ve been traveling for years, offering greater parity between retailers and their product supplier partner members at the board of directors level."

The organization will remain committed to effectiveness on public policy and to the issues that matter, a forum for high-impact industry dialogue, and dedicated to consumer and operational insights. 

“FMI provides the most productive forum for connecting and holding constructive dialogue across the food industry,” said FMI President and CEO Leslie Sarasin. “Driven by consumer relevance, we are in the business of food, wherever it is bought, sold or produced, and we are well positioned to represent everything in the shopping basket – and work closely with every participant in the marketplace.”

FMI was founded more than 40 years ago, when the Super Market Institute and the National Association of Food Chains merged. Its member companies operate nearly 33,000 retail food stores and 12,000 pharmacies. The Arlington, Va.-based trade organization has almost 500 associate member companies that provide products and services to the food retail industry.