Whether it’s aspirin or shaving cream, HBC is a growing category that deserves a renewed focus.

Source: Convenience Store Decisions

HBC is making a comeback from coast to coast.

The category—from shampoos and skin creams to cough drops and cold remedies—has always had its rightful place in a convenience store—providing a grab-and-go remedy for a variety of ailments. Still, the category has been stigmatized at c-stores as an offering that commands a much higher price than the local drug store or supermarket. But the times have changed. More and more retailers are taking the time to find single-serve and lower-cost solutions that are helping to improve sales.

“HBC is not the ideal category to drive people into the store necessarily, but it’s a category that stores must have so they don’t upset anyone by not carrying what consumers would expect to find at their local convenience store,” said David Bishop, managing partner of Balvor, a retail consulting firm based in Barrington, Ill. “We offer it so we don’t lose credibility with customers.”

Click here for full article

ASM, which provides outsourced sales, marketing and merchandising services to manufacturers, suppliers and producers of consumer packaged goods (CPGs), has 2010 revenues of approximately $1 billion.  Upon completion of the transaction, ASM’s senior leadership team will continue to manage the Company’s day-to-day operations. 

“I am very excited to embark on our new partnership with Apax Partners. Their global reach and large network of relationships will not only drive value for ASM but also create opportunities for further growth,” said Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sonny King. “Apax is an ideal partner for our company given their deep expertise in Retail & Consumer Products.”

 “ASM has established an impressive track record of generating value for its clients and customers through its operational excellence in both Sales and Marketing,” said John Megrue, Chief Executive Officer of Apax Partners U.S. and co-head of the Apax Retail & Consumer team.  “We look forward to partnering with the Company’s outstanding management team led by Sonny King and Tanya Domier.”

Alex Pellegrini, Partner in the Retail & Consumer Group at Apax Partners, commented: “We believe that ASM operates in a favorable industry that features strong secular growth trends, including more outsourcing by CPGs and a greater focus on in-store marketing.  Advantage is well positioned to further build brand value for its clients and customers through its industry-leading sales and marketing capabilities.”

 “This transaction marks a new chapter in the growth of our business,” said Tanya Domier, President and Chief Operating Officer. “We look forward to pursuing our growth strategy with the support of Apax.”

The transaction, which is subject to customary approvals, is expected to close prior to the end of 2010. 

Sawaya Segalas & Co., LLC, a leading consumer investment banking firm, acted as exclusive financial adviser to the Company in connection with the transaction. 

About Apax Partners

Apax Partners is one of the world’s leading private equity investment groups. It operates across the United States, Europe and Asia and has more than 30 years of investing experience. Funds under the advice and management of Apax Partners globally total around $40 billion. These Funds provide long-term equity financing to build and strengthen world-class companies. Apax Partners Funds invest in companies across its global sectors of Retail & Consumer, Tech & Telecom, Media, Healthcare and Financial & Business Services. For more information visit: www.apax.com.

Contacts:            

Tania King
Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC
Tel: 949-797-3162
Email: tania.king@asmnet.com 

Ben Harding
Apax Partners
Tel: +44 (0)20 7872 6401
Email: ben.harding@apax.com

Todd Fogarty
Kekst and Company
Tel: 212-521-4854
Email: todd-fogarty@kekst.com

Here’s an excerpt from the post:

“One company that’s taking this slow build approach with enterprise social networking is Advantage Sales & Marketing (ASM), a premier sales and marketing agency based in Irvine, Calif.  ASM’s Talent Development team has been piloting our social networking platform, Cornerstone Connect, to foster informal learning as part of its new ACES (Accelerated Career Excellence in Sales) sales and leadership development program.

ASM uses Cornerstone’s comprehensive software suite — including platforms for learning management, employee performance management, succession planning and compensation — to develop and manage its 20,000 employees.  The Talent Development team decided to pilot Connect for the ACES program when they realized that limitations with SharePoint wouldn’t allow them to be as strategic in fostering informal learning.”

» Click here to access the full blog post.

Source: Chain Drug Review

PITTSBURGH – GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare (GSK) has established several key sales, marketing and merchandising objectives for its retail partners in 2010 to capitalize on its Advantage Brands strategy, according to Mike McCormick, director of the initiative.

GSK’s Advantage Brands comprise 17 well-known products (including Citrucel and Tagamet) that cover such categories as laxatives, vitamin supplements and cough/cold remedies.

“In the difficult economic times that we are facing today, creative business solutions focused on efficiencies while driving value truly differentiate great companies from good companies,” notes Chris Olivier, president of sales at Advantage Sales and Marketing. “The Advantage Brands/GSK partnership is a perfect example of a creative business solution that has taken costs out of the system while delivering increased value.”

» Click here to access the full story.

Santa Monica, Calif., December 17, 2009 – Cornerstone OnDemand Inc. today unveiled several new features and enhancements across its entire learning and talent management software suite designed to provide organizations with an even more advanced solution for connecting, managing and developing a high-performing workforce.  This includes significant updates to its platforms for enterprise social networking and succession management.

…

”Connecting geographically dispersed trainees in a workplace community where they can get to know one another and share experiences enriches the training and development process,” said Wendie Whelan, Manager HRMS, Talent Development forAdvantage Sales & Marketing, which is using Cornerstone Connect to foster informal learning as part of its ACES (Accelerated Career Excellence in Sales) sales and leadership development program.  “As users become more engaged, participation increases and more content is captured, the community will evolve into a valuable information resource for our company.”

» Click here to access the full article.

“As part of establishing a cutting-edge Internal Audit function, Advantage Sales & Marketing was looking for a solution to address the need for timely, and ongoing assurance over the effectiveness of risk management and control systems,” said Syed Mohammad, Director of Internal Audit. “We realized very early in the process that in today’s evolving regulatory and fast paced business environment, traditional internal audit testing of controls will only provide a narrow scope and limited value to business.

With business transactions being executed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over the web and at multiple locations, we made a strategic decision to implement a flexible and robust solution for our compliance needs. We chose Reliant’s software solution because of its integrated approach to document management and continuous monitoring and focus on the needs of CAE’s. We expect to utilize Reliant’s continuous monitoring solution to highlight opportunities to improve operational processes and enhance our value proposition and ROI.”

ReliantAuditor™ is the first comprehensive solution to automate audit operations from the perspective of the Chief Audit Executive, including risk assessment, audit plan management, control monitoring, testing and remediation, and integrate these into a dynamic risk framework that provides up-to-the-minute status on audit results from across the enterprise. Auditors are able to perform true continuous auditing to identify and remediate business risks at any time, improving efficiency, quality, insight, and assurance across all aspects of audit.

ReliantAuditor™ reduces audit costs by reducing the time and effort needed to prepare, conduct and report on audits. Its global dashboard facilitates collaboration with key stakeholders, allowing them to easily see and respond to high priority items that require attention. The out-of-box controls and audit plan templates, representing industry best practices, enable rapid deployment to maximize ROI.

“As each organization approaches audit automation in its own way, ReliantAuditor™ is engineered to provide the greatest flexibility and strength to those implementing it,” said Dipak Shah, CEO of Reliant Solutions. “We’re pleased that Advantage Sales & Marketing, LLC is the latest example of an organization using ReliantAuditor™ to optimize its processes, enabling it to derive greater business, and strategic value from audit.”

About Reliant Solutions, Inc.
Reliant provides software and consulting services for chief audit executives who want to reduce the high cost, complexity and uncertainty of enterprise-wide audits. To effectively manage risk, auditors need efficient audit processes, reliable test data and continuous visibility into risks, controls and audit results at any time. Reliant delivers all of these and more with the only continuous risk management solution for auditors. With Reliant, you can continuously monitor transactions, streamline audit operations, automate control testing and remediation, and implement a dynamic risk framework that shows up-to-the-minute status of audit programs. Using pre-packaged, standards-based controls for compliance, operational and financial audits, Reliant helps companies to reduce risk while gaining efficiency, quality, insight and assurance throughout the audit process. www.reliantaudit.com

About Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC
Founded in 1987, Advantage Sales and Marketing (ASM) is a premier sales and marketing agency, committed to building brand value for our clients and customers. ASM’s cradle-to-cart—post-manufacture to consumption—customized sales and marketing solutions include headquarter sales, retail merchandising and marketing services, specializing in client and customer events, publications and assisted-selling services for the grocery, drugstore, club, convenience, natural/specialty, consumer electronic and home center industries. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., ASM has more than 20,000 associates and 66 offices in the United States and Canada. Visit www.asmnet.com today.

It’s one thing to make the country’s best sugar. But getting that delicious sweetener onto grocers’ shelves is another matter entirely. Making sure that consumers always have a fresh supply on hand falls to Advantage Sales and Marketing, an Imperial business partner.

“Imperial’s the expert at making the variety of sugar products that customers want,” says Advantage’s Tom Cunningham, Business Manager for Imperial’s Texas sales. “Our job is to make sure that the products are positioned and priced correctly in all accounts where we represent Imperial.”

» Click here to access the full story.

“We are very pleased and proud of the success that ASM has had in helping us to grow our Canterbury Natural Distribution nationally,” said Harry Forsberg, Conifer Specialties Vice President, Sales & Marketing. “Since just the beginning of January, we have gained 18,000 new points of distribution. This can be attributed to the hard work and dedication of the entire ASM Natural & Specialty team.”

The following award recipients will receive a three night trip to the Willows Lodge in Woodinville, Wash.:

• Manager with the largest increase in distributor sales from previous year: Customer Development Manager Robin Fogarty
• Manager with largest gain in distribution accounts: Customer Development Manager John Rader
• Retail Sales Merchandiser with the largest gain in distribution points: Jayme Kerrigan
• Manager with largest gain in distribution of new items: Customer Development Manager Robert Piemontese
• Conifer MVP with more than 7,800 new points of distribution: Business Development Manager Susan Pittsley

“Congratulations to all of our Conifer Incentive Trip winners on their well-deserved rewards,” said Frank Morris, Vice President, Natural and Specialty. “We look forward to continuing to grow this client’s business as our mutual success is its own reward.”

About Advantage Sales and Marketing
Advantage Sales & Marketing LLC (ASM) is a premier consumer packaged goods sales and marketing agency, committed to building brand value for our clients and customers. ASM’s cradle-to-cart—post-manufacture to consumption—customized sales and marketing solutions include headquarter sales, retail merchandising and marketing services, specializing in client and customer events, publications and assisted-selling services for the grocery, drugstore, club, convenience, natural/specialty, consumer electronic and home center industries. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., ASM has 66 offices in the United States and Canada. Visit www.asmnet.com today.

“Adam and the Kroger team did a great job representing the Tillamook brand corporately at Kroger Cincinnati while at the same time coordinating efforts with the brokers in the individual regions,” said Jay Allison, TCCA’s vice president of sales and marketing. “He exceeded budget expectations and worked very hard to increase the Tillamook brand exposure in his core market.”

The associates received the award at TCCA’s annual broker meeting where their management, and sales and marketing teams met with the cooperative’s broker network, provided the brokers an update on the cooperative and dairy industry, and set goals for the coming year. There were 28 other brokers in attendance, representing the retail, food service and service deli sectors.

“We are extremely honored to receive this award from our valued client among our peers,” said Dean Gray, ASM’s vice president, client development. “Adam and the Kroger team truly dedicated themselves to adding value to our client’s market performance and the award they have received is an embodiment of their outstanding results.”

About Advantage Sales and Marketing, LLC
Advantage Sales and Marketing (ASM) is a premier consumer packaged goods sales and marketing agency, committed to building brand value for our clients and customers. ASM’s cradle-to-cart—post-manufacture to consumption—customized sales and marketing solutions includes headquarter sales, retail merchandising and marketing services, specializing in client and customer events, publications and assisted-selling services for the grocery, drugstore, club, convenience, natural/specialty, consumer electronic and home center industries. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., ASM has 66 offices in the United States and Canada. Visit www.asmnet.com today.

About Tillamook County Creamery Association
The Tillamook County Creamery Association, formed as a cooperative in 1909, has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s premier brands of cheese. Tillamook is a national marketer of naturally aged cheddar and a variety of other cheeses, butter, and an extensive line of premium ice cream, sour cream and yogurt. The cooperative celebrates its 100 year anniversary in 2009.

From senior leaders and front-line supervisors to new hires, ASM instills core values across its organization to promote a culture of excellence and development. This includes cultivating a high performing workforce, encouraging innovation, and ensuring customer satisfaction and loyalty. ASM’s philosophy also includes fostering a “learning environment” by providing extensive training and development programs for its employees. To support this culture of excellence, ASM sought to invest in a complete technology solution for its learning and talent management efforts, one that would span the entire employee lifecycle while also helping to create new organizational efficiencies and best practices.

“It was important for our Talent Development team to find a comprehensive, user-friendly and interactive talent management solution that would engage both managers and team members and support our business goals,” said Pamela James, Vice President, Human Resources for Advantage Sales and Marketing. “Because Cornerstone’s software suite is truly integrated, we will have the ability to gain more insight into our entire workforce and make more strategic human capital management decisions.”

According to a recent Bersin & Associates study, organizations using integrated human capital management solutions cite two to three times the ROI of organizations implementing point solutions. Deploying Cornerstone’s software suite across its organization will allow ASM to:

• Strategically and cost-effectively create, manage and deliver personalized, fully blended learning programs for its entire organization.
• Align individual goals with departmental objectives and organizational strategy, as well as automate existing performance review and competency assessment programs.
• Correlate performance with employee compensation.
• Unite individual strengths to improve overall organizational capabilities and workforce planning.
• Keep leadership and critical roles pipeline full and plan ahead for workforce change.
• Easily identify impacts, trends, progress and results of its talent management strategy.

“Our Talent Development team is impressed with the flexibility and scalability of Cornerstone’s Software-as-a-Service delivery,” said Jennifer DePaola, ASM’s Director of Talent Development. “The software allows us to deploy the different modules throughout the company to help support associate development.”

Commented Adam Miller, President and CEO of Cornerstone OnDemand, “Now more than ever, it is important for businesses such as Advantage Sales and Marketing to maximize the ROI of their talent management investments while also cutting costs. We’re seeing more organizations adopting an integrated versus siloed approach because it allows them to be more efficient and effective with their strategies. And with the added benefits of SaaS delivery, businesses are able to take advantage of lower implementation and IT costs while also keeping up with new technology advancements.”

About Cornerstone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand (www.cornerstoneondemand.com) empowers people around the world with on-demand, integrated learning and talent management software and services for connecting, developing and performing in the workplace. Cornerstone’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based solutions span the workforce lifecycle, including onboarding, learning, social networking, compliance, performance, compensation and succession planning. The company also provides extended enterprise solutions to help companies better train and collaborate with customers, vendors and resellers. Available in 14 languages and supported by global, 24×7 customer care, Cornerstone is used by more than 1.5 million active subscribers in 141 countries. The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, California and has international offices in London, Paris, Munich, Tel Aviv and Mumbai.

About Advantage Sales and Marketing LLC
Advantage Sales and Marketing (ASM) is a premier consumer packaged goods sales and marketing agency, committed to building brand value for our clients and customers. ASM’s cradle-to-cart — post-manufacture to consumption — customized sales and marketing solutions includes headquarter sales, retail merchandising and marketing services, specializing in client and customer events, publications and assisted-selling services for the grocery, drugstore, club, convenience, natural/specialty, consumer electronic and home center industries. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., ASM has more than 20,000 associates and 66 offices in the United States and Canada. Visit www.asmnet.com today.