CSNews Honors 2015 Category Captains

JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Ten convenience store industry suppliers and distributors are being recognized as category leaders in the 2015 Convenience Store News Category Captains awards program.

Today’s hyper-competitive retail environment has brought new interest to category management and category captaincy among both convenience store retailers and their product suppliers and distributors. A “Category Captain” is a supplier that has won the retailer’s trust to help manage and grow an entire product category’s sales and profits, not just the supplier’s own product line.

Research shows the average shopper spends only three minutes in a convenience store. In fact, consumers’ attention span is getting shorter. A recent study reported that people have an average attention span of 8 seconds, down from 12 seconds in 2000. This means retailers must be laser-focused in their category management skills. With the aid of leading vendors — a.k.a. Category Captains — they must take advantage of every opportunity to improve asset utilization, customer loyalty, gross margins and volume.

Now in its second year, the CSNews Category Captains awards program recognizes companies for their category management prowess, demonstrated through their partnerships with convenience store retailers, and highlights their most innovative partnering programs with c-store retailers.

From foodservice to packaged beverages, this year’s Category Captains demonstrate their understanding of retailers’ needs to address shopper demands and the execution of solutions. Dissecting categories and digging deep into SKU management is the key to cultivating a flourishing customer base. 

The 2015 Category Captains are:

Alternative Snacks: Kellogg’s Specialty Channels

Beer/Malt Beverages: Anheuser-Busch

Candy: The Hershey Co.

Foodservice/Full Program: McLane Co. Foodservice

Foodservice/Prepared Food: AdvancePierre Foods

Health & Beauty Care: Lil’ Drug Store Products

Other Tobacco Products: Swisher International

Packaged Beverages: The Coca-Cola Co.

Packaged Sweet Snacks: McKee Foods Corp.

Wine & Liquor: E&.J. Gallo Winery

All entries were judged based on the information supplied by participating companies.

For more on the winners, look in the August issue of Convenience Store News.