Hy-Vee to Hold 2nd ‘Best of Local Brands’ Summit

Event for Midwestern vendors will take place in May

3/22/2021

Hy-Vee to Hold 2nd ‘Best of Local Brands’ Summit ECRM RangeMe

Hy-Vee is accepting submissions for its second quarterly "Best of Local Brands" summit online in the categories of grocery, produce, deli, general merchandise, frozen, dairy, and health and beauty care.

Hy-Vee Inc. plans to host its second “Best of Local Brands” summit May 11-13 to expand and enhance the product offerings at its more than 275 stores across the Midwest. At the first quarterly summit, which took place in February, 52 new brands were chosen for placement in Hy-Vee locations in the coming months.

The retailer is now accepting submissions for the forthcoming summit online in the categories of grocery, produce, deli, general merchandise, frozen, dairy, and health and beauty care. The summit will be organized by the eight states in which Hy-Vee operates and consist of 15- to 30-minute virtual presentations from selected suppliers.

Solon, Ohio-based ECRM and RangeMe, an ECRM company based in San Francisco, will help the food retailer source, qualify and connect suppliers with the right buyers. All sourcing and product submissions will be made through RangeMe, an online product discovery and sourcing platform, and ECRM will qualify suppliers, create curated meeting schedules and facilitate face-to-face meetings with Hy-Vee buyers to launch innovative products in the marketplace. All meetings will be conducted through ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect, while ECRM’s support team will help ensure seamless buyer-seller connections. Suppliers not chosen will still be accessible via RangeMe and may be reviewed by Hy-Vee buyers again in the future as business needs evolve.

Other retailers to work with ECRM on virtual supplier events include Dollar General, Meijer Inc. and Schnuck Markets Inc.

With sales of $11 billion annually, employee-owned Hy-Vee operates more than 275 retail stores across Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based company is No. 33 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2020 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America. Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based Dollar General, which has 16,500 stores in 46 states; Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Meijer, operating 256 supercenters and grocery stores throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin; and St. Louis-based Schnucks, with 112 stores in Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, are Nos. 16, 19 and 67, respectively, on PG’s list.