Hy-Vee to Hold ‘Best of Local Brands’ Summit in February
Hy-Vee Inc. will host its fifth “Best of Local Brands” summit in February to grow and improve the product offerings at its stores in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. One hundred new brands were chosen from the first three summits combined and are now available to Hy-Vee customers.
The latest event will consist of 15- to 30-minute virtual presentations from selected suppliers, and will run from Wednesday, Feb. 16 to Friday, Feb. 18.
Hy-Vee is currently accepting submissions for the summit online in the categories of grocery, produce, deli, general merchandise, frozen, dairy, and health and beauty care. The retailer is encouraging minority- and women-owned businesses to apply for the quarterly summits. Solon, Ohio-based ECRM and its RangeMe subsidiary are helping Hy-Vee source, qualify and connect suppliers with the right buyers, with all sourcing and product submissions made through RangeMe’s online product discovery and sourcing platform. ECRM will qualify suppliers, create curated meeting schedules and facilitate face-to-face meetings with Hy-Vee buyers to introduce new products into the marketplace. All meetings will be conducted via ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect. Suppliers not selected to take part in this summit will still be accessible through RangeMe and may be reviewed by Hy-Vee buyers again in the future.
The grocery held the first summit of this kind in February 2020.
Employee-owned Hy-Vee has a team of more than 91,000 employees and operates 285-plus retail stores across eight Midwestern states. The West Des Moines, Iowa-based company is No. 34 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2021 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.
