SuperValu Multicultural Exec Joins Speaker Lineup at Hispanic Retail 360

DALLAS - Armando Martin, head of multicultural marketing for SuperValu, the huge food retailer and wholesaler, is a late addition to the speaker lineup at the third annual Hispanic Retail 360 Summit, August 1-3, 2007, at the Westin Park Central Hotel in Dallas.

Martin, who supervises multicultural marketing for the company that operates such major store banners as Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Save-A-Lot, Cub Foods, Lucky and Sunflower Markets, joins the Friday morning Retailing Track session on Food & Beverages, with Jeff Morris, CEO of Alon USA, operators of Dallas-based Southwest Convenience Stores.

Kal Patel, executive vice president, emerging business and strategy for Best Buy, and Manny Fernandez, manager of multicultural marketing for JCPenney, will be among the retailers taking the dais to share insights and practices for connecting with the Latino shopper. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to tour Minyard Food Stores' award-winning Latino-themed Carnival flagship supermarket and Hispanic-themed stores operated by Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

Representatives of other grocery, convenience and department store retailers, including ExxonMobil, Southwest Convenience Stores (the largest 7-Eleven licensee in the U.S.), Pro's Ranch Markets, Minyard Food Stores, Hy-Vee Inc. and La Curacao, will also present case studies, along with major suppliers to the retail business, including Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson and SONY. In addition, Los Angeles Dodgers Vice President of Sales and Marketing Sergio del Prado will discuss the baseball club's successful Hispanic retail and grassroots promotions.

Content for the conference is steered by a 23-member Retail Advisory Board made up of prominent grocery, convenience, drug store, general merchandise and foodservice retailers, including Raul Reyes, strategy leader for U.S. Marketing for McDonald's Corp.

The 2007 format will also include more breakout sessions allowing participants to choose from an array of topics and areas of interest and experience levels that suit their needs.

The 2007 Hispanic Retail 360 Summit will feature:

-- A Marketing Track covering grassroots marketing (a Johnson & Johnson case study), direct mail/print (Latino Direct Mail Success Stories), and digital/broadcast.
-- A Retailing Track featuring sessions on grocery, convenience, consumer electronics and Internet retailing.
-- A Consumer Insights Track highlighted by ACNielsen's look into Hispanic consumers' shopping baskets, advice on how to target wealthy Hispanics, and cashing in on Hispanic holidays.
-- Live on-site focus group of Latino shoppers from different backgrounds and acculturation levels, conducted by NBC-Today Show Food Expert Phil Lempert, The Supermarket Guru.
-- More product areas from food to general merchandise and topics of interest to all retail channels including department stores, mass merchandisers, supermarkets, convenience stores, drug stores and specialty retailers in consumer electronics, home improvement, apparel and more.
-- Marketing y Medios' annual presentation of its Media All-Stars awards.

One of the highlights of the Summit will be the presentation of the Hispanic Retail Excellence Award to Bashas' Food City, based in Chandler, Ariz. Last year's winner was Anaheim-based JAX Markets. The 2005 winner was Pros Ranch Market, which operates Hispanic market stores in southern California and four in Phoenix, Ariz.

Last year's Summit, held in Chicago, attracted more than 500 attendees composed of retailers from across all channels of retailing, major consumer products goods manufacturers, advertising agencies and consultants. Feedback from last year's attendees was extremely positive. "Great conference! It really is the 360 degrees. You start from point A and continue on. No matter what level of knowledge you come with, you leave with the total picture," said Maria St. Germain of Kroger, the giant supermarket chain.

Publication partners for Hispanic Retail 360 include Progressive Grocer, Adweek, Marketing y Medios, Brandweek, Mediaweek, and Convenience Store News. The Mexican American Grocer Association, NACS (The Association for Convenience & Petroleum Retailing), GMDC (General Merchandise Distributors Council) and the Neighborhood Market Association (formerly the California Independent Grocers & Convenience Stores) are among the trade association sponsors.

This year's sponsors include Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, ADVO, CityReach Latino, Kraft, Hershey, AARP, Buena Guia, Colgate-Palmolive, and McLane Co. Several sponsorship packages are still available. For more information on sponsorships, please contact Jeff Friedman, vice president, customer media, Nielsen Business Media, at 646-654-7452, or email: [email protected].

For registration information, please contact Lois Miller at [email protected] or go to www.hispanicretail360.com.
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