2025 Category Excellence in Promotion: EG America & The Hershey Co.
As inflation continues to be top of mind for shoppers, EG America has been at the forefront of delivering quick and affordable meal solutions for its guests, while partnering with key manufacturers and nationally recognized brands across multiple categories to drive consumer excitement and takeaway. A best-in-class example is EG's $5 Meal Deal activation.
Kimberly Ross, EG's category manager for candy and packaged sweets, worked cross-functionally with both internal and external partners to select key brands and products that would drive the highest shopper engagement for the meal deal bundles. She collaborated with The Hershey Co.; EG's Packaged Beverages Category Manager Madison Everett and The Coca-Cola Co.; and EG's foodservice category managers to select products and determine promotional pricing, signage and displays to support the program.
Hershey provided shopper insights focused on the bundle offerings that were most engaging to include food, beverage and candy for a set price. Hershey's Customer Sales Executive Joe Lera also worked closely with the EG category managers to ensure that enough product would be available during the promotion, and leveraged Hershey's retail field sales team to assist with execution needs before and during the promotional window.
This collaboration drove a 2x take rate on the meal deal bundle while growing total confection and packaged beverage category sales during the promotion.
Click here for the full winners' list for the 2025 Convenience Store News Category Excellence Awards.