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Retailer of the Year award winners honored

Retailer of the Year

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NEW YORK — Mass Market Retailers presented its 2017 Retailer of the Year awards last week in New York City. The event drew retailer and supplier executives from across the food, drug and mass channels.

Honored as MMR Merchant of the Year was Albertsons Cos. executive vice president and chief marketing and merchanding officer Shane Sampson. In his role, Sampson is responsible for seeing to it that customers find the products they want, and can buy them in the way they want, regardless of which of the company’s stores or banners they shop. And those choices are multiplying, as Albertsons Cos. prepares to add Rite Aid stores and pharmacies to a roster that already includes more than 2,300 supermarkets operating under 20 banners and across 35 states and the District of Columbia.

Also honored was Hy-Vee, which was named MMR‘s Innovator of the Year. Hy-Vee chairman and chief executive officer Randy Edeker credits the employee-owned company’s entrepreneurial culture with allowing it to experiment and develop solutions that fit consumers’ evolving needs. That willingness to change has seen Hy-Vee expand its culinary offerings to include not only heat-and-eat and prepared food options, but also restaurants, including its own Market Grille outlets and also Wahlburgers restaurants that it will operate as a franchisee. Hy-Vee has also expanded its health and wellness offerings over the years to include, in addition to pharmacies, health food departments, dietitians, clinics and, most recently, a partnership with OrangeTheory Fitness to add health clubs to the mix.

The event also honored the executives recognized by MMR’s sister publication, Chain Drug Review. Those executives are:

  • Alex Gourlay, co-chief executive officer at Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc., was honored as CDR‘s Retailer of the Year.
  • Kevin Hourican, executive vice president of pharmacy services at CVS Health, was honored as CDR‘s Pharmacy Executive of the Year.
  • Martin Otto, chief merchant and chief financial officer at H-E-B, was honored with CDR‘s Industry Leadership award, in recognition of his work with that retailer and for his contributions during a yearlong term as chairman of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

 

 

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