DENVER, Colo. — ROFDA announced the successful completion of its sold-out Spring 2026 event in New Mexico, where record attendance and expanded engagement reinforced the organization’s growing role as a strategic platform for independent grocery wholesalers, retailers, CPG partners and technology providers.
The Spring event brought together ROFDA member wholesalers and self-distributing retailers, select independent retailers, leading CPG companies, technology partners and multiple executive share groups for focused discussion, strategic collaboration and pre-scheduled business meetings. New and expanded CPG participation included leading organizations such as Kellanova, General Mills, Bumble Bee, McCormick, Nestlé, Nestlé Pet, Hometown Food Company and others.
Building on that momentum, ROFDA announced that application and registration materials for its Fall 2026 event will open soon. The Fall event is scheduled for November 3-7, 2026, at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort in Indian Wells, California, in the Palm Desert area.
The Fall event will again include ROFDA’s core executive and functional share groups, including the Chief Merchants, CTO/CIO, Marketing/RMN, Retailer and CEO Share Groups. These groups are designed to create deeper engagement between ROFDA members and participating companies in the areas most important to member competitiveness, supplier collaboration, technology, retail media, merchandising, operations and retailer execution.
A key element of ROFDA’s event model is its pre-scheduled business meeting format. Participating companies have the opportunity to engage share groups collectively in a one-to-many format while also participating in targeted one-on-one meetings with individual ROFDA wholesalers and member companies. This structure allows CPG and technology partners to present broader strategic ideas, then follow with more specific discussions tied to each member’s priorities, capabilities and market opportunities.
ROFDA’s national events continue to serve as both relationship-building forums and working sessions designed to move key initiatives forward. The combination of share group engagement, CEO-level participation, retailer involvement and structured business meetings gives participating companies a more efficient path to understand the independent grocery channel and build more meaningful relationships across the ROFDA network.
“The energy around ROFDA continues to build because our members, retailers and partners recognize the value of coming together with purpose. The Spring event in New Mexico demonstrated the power of the ROFDA structure, and we are pleased to welcome that momentum into the Fall event in Indian Wells. Our existing members with recently added Brookshire Bros., our retailers and our supplier partners all strengthen the conversation, and that collective engagement is what makes ROFDA so valuable," said Amy Niemetscheck, President and CEO, CERTCO, and Board Chair of ROFDA
“ROFDA’s events are becoming a more strategic platform for members and for the partners who want to engage the independent grocery channel at scale. The Spring event confirms the value of our share group model and our pre-scheduled meeting format. As we prepare to open the Fall application process, we encourage companies with a serious interest in engaging ROFDA to apply early, because the Fall program is already showing strong demand," added Mark Deuschle, President and CEO, ROFDA.
