McLane Unveils New Offerings at National Trade Show

TEMPLE, Texas — McLane Co. Inc. kicked off its annual National Trade Show with the unveiling of two new offers: JAVAPERKS, a new coffee program, and Central Eats, a new hot foods program.

With JAVAPERKS, retailers provide a branded a coffee bar service. Through the program, they can access custom graphics, countertop units or walls to highlight the brand within the store.

Through Central Eats, retailers have access to high-quality, pre-packaged breakfast, lunch and dinner items available for sale as a refrigerated or heated and ready-to-eat offering. Retailers may use the Central Eats brand developed exclusively for this program, or they may choose to custom label the products, according to McLane.

Both new offers are available under McLane Kitchen, the company's foodservice-at-retail solution. Minimal purchase commitment or commissary relationship is required.

The theme of this year's National Trade Show was "Virtual Experience, Real World Profits." It was held virtually from Oct. 20-21 and featured one-on-one live chats with suppliers, webinars with McLane's merchandising and technology teams, and the ability to visit virtual booths where participants could view and download a variety of informative and instructional videos and presentations.

CVP, McLane's private label brand, debuted new products, including, but not limited to:

• General merchandise such as laundry pods, dish tabs, charcoal, and briquette;
• Grocery products such as bath and facial tissue, kitchen towels, and napkins; and
• Health and beauty products such as deodorant, toothbrushes, and baby wipes.

The show also featured pre-recorded breakout sessions with McLane Co. Director of Private Label Teresa Voelter, who delivered an in-depth presentation on the benefits of the company's CVP brand offerings, as well as an update from Customer Technology Business Analyst Matt Stroud on advancements in the company’s technology offerings.

The keynote speaker this year was Nik Modi, managing director of RBC Capital Markets. Modi has responsibility for the coverage of beverage, household personal care, packaged food, and tobacco industries. The companies under his coverage total nearly $1 trillion in combined market value.

"Despite the pandemic, we have continued to innovate and create value-added products and services that support the needs of our current and prospective customers," said Keith Ross, senior vice president of Corporate Merchandising. "The McLane Co. national trade show is a wonderful opportunity for retailers to meet with supplier representatives, learn about the hottest new products, and hear from industry leaders on topics that impact their bottom line."

Based in Temple, McLane is one of the largest supply chain services leaders, providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores, and chain restaurants throughout the United States. McLane, through McLane Grocery and McLane Foodservice, operates more than 80 distribution centers and one of the nation's largest private fleets. The company buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 different consumer products to nearly 110,000 locations across the United States. Additionally, McLane provides alcoholic beverage distribution through its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire Distributors Inc. McLane is a wholly owned unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.