IRVINE, Calif.—

“With this landmark partnership, I am pleased to launch ASM into the foodservice industry,” said Sonny King, ASM chairman and chief executive officer. “Advantage Waypoint allows ASM to provide our clients with unparalleled service in the foodservice industry nationwide.”

Advantage Waypoint LLC is comprised of the eight companies that currently form a working alliance under the name of Waypoint including Apex Foodservice Group, Benchmark Sales, Dougherty Brokerage Company, Food Sales West, FSI Southwest, Innovative Concept Group, Inter-Mark Sales, and Midwest Venture Partners. A ninth company independent of the current Waypoint alliance, C Mascari & Associates, will also join Advantage Waypoint LLC.

Advantage Waypoint LLC is headquartered in Tampa, Fla. and led by Bud Taylor, chief executive officer, former president of Innovative Concept Group. Advantage Waypoint LLC will have its own officers and board of directors.

“By unifying nine outstanding companies and partnering with ASM, Advantage Waypoint LLC will become the first sales and marketing company to provide national coverage for food service clients,” said Taylor. “We look forward to building upon the current success of these great companies.”

“Rick represents an extraordinary addition to our board given the breadth and depth of his experience within the food and consumer packaged goods industry,” said Chairman and CEO Sonny King. “His experience and leadership will provide significant value to ASM’s stakeholders.”

Wolford started in the food industry at Dole Foods. He has lived and worked in Central America and the Philippines, where he directed Dole’s operations. Later he was responsible for Dole’s worldwide packaged operations in Thailand, the Philippines, Hawaii, Korea and the U.S. mainland. In 1982, Wolford was named president of Dole Packaged Foods, a position he held for five years.

In 1987, Wolford joined with private equity investors to invest in and develop businesses in the food industry. In 1996, having identified Del Monte Foods as a high potential acquisition opportunity, he worked with a private equity firm, to acquire the company. On completion of the acquisition, he was named chief executive officer in April 1997. He successfully took Del Monte public in a 1999 IPO and was elected chairman of the board in May 2000.

Under Wolford’s leadership, Del Monte successfully acquired several Heinz food businesses including their pet business in a Reverse Morris trust transaction. Through a series of acquisitions and divestitures, Wolford realigned Del Monte’s portfolio and grew the pet business with a resulting portfolio that combined the high growth pet business with the company’s more mature fruit and vegetable business. Wolford led Del Monte from a $1 billion consumer foods business into a branded pet and consumer products company with close to $4 billion in revenues. During his tenure, Del Monte’s portfolio was transformed by building and acquiring strong and growing brand equities. The company’s growth included enhancing its margin structure and building a talented team.

Wolford has served as a member of the board of directors of the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and in January 2010, was elected its chairman of the board. Since April 2011, he has been member of the board of directors of Diamond Foods, Inc. (NASDAQ: DMND). He also served as a member of the board of directors of the Consumer Goods Forum and now serves as a member of the board of directors for Schiff Nutrition International since September 2011. Wolford is the recipient of the 2011 GMA Hall of Achievement award honoring extraordinary leadership and commitment to the consumer packaged goods industry and the 2011 Food Marketing Institute (FMI) William H. Albers Award recognizing excellence in trading partner relations and consumer and community service. Wolford graduated from Harvard University with a degree in economics.

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.”

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IRVINE, Calif.—Integrated Marketing Services was ranked sixth in the 2011 Promo 100, an annual list of the top 100 U.S. promotion agencies.  Promo magazine, a division of Chief Marketer Network, uses domestic net revenue to fashion its list. 

On two separate Promo 100 lists highlighting agencies with promotional marketing specialty in retail and on behalf of retailers, Integrated placed first.

“It has been a wild ride going from one of the best kept secrets in the world of promotions agencies to a blue-ribbon competitor in our space,” said Gary Wagner, president of Integrated’s Shopper Marketing Division. “As we’ve grown into a large scale agency with a comprehensive suite of retail-based services, we have not lost sight of the basic premise we set out with 11 years ago. Specifically that marrying winning creative with the ability to apply insights derived from data sources and firsthand retailer knowledge would generate the most compelling, shopper-centric programming that excites all parties involved.”

Integrated Marketing Services is Advantage Sales and Marketing’s full-service promotion agency specializing in shopper marketing, event marketing, in-store demos and custom publishing while focusing on influencing buyer behavior and driving sales.

 “We are proud to have moved up four notches from last year’s overall rankings and to top both lists of agencies specializing in retail marketing,” said Jill Griffin, President of Integrated’s Experiential Marketing Division. “Of course we owe this ascent to our client and retailer partners who have shared our vision of a better way to practice shopper marketing and one-to-one consumer interactions, as well as the associates whose passion and collaborative spirit have fueled it.   From the hallways of our California and Connecticut offices to every field office in between, to the thousands of stores in which we are engaging consumers every week – our dynamic and entrepreneurial Integrated culture is as responsible for our success as anything.”

The rankings will appear in the August/September issue of Chief Marketer magazine, which hits newsstands this week.

SymphonyIRI Group said it will partner with Walmart to create a new collaborative planning platform called Customer Advantage.

The Customer Advantage solution identifies and sizes opportunities among shopper segments, trips and categories that will better enable Walmart and its supplier partners to grow their businesses through a deeper understanding of our customers,” said Cindy Davis, executive vice president of Walmart global customer insights, in a prepared statement.

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Data-analysis firm Nielsen said that it will once again incorporate data from Wal-Mart Stores’ U.S. operations into its reports.  Nielsen said it has signed a cooperation agreement with the retailer that will allow it receive and analyze Walmart’s CPG sales information as it does with other major retailers.  Walmart had stopped sharing its sales data with all data firms in 2001.

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Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market said it will introduce a loyalty card program later this year.

The card — similar to Tesco’s Clubcard — will be tested in seven stores in the Bakersfield area in the fall and, if successful, will reportedly be expanded chainwide in March. Like Clubcard, it will use a digital points-based program that enables customers to earn one point for every dollar they spend at Fresh & Easy — points that can be exchanged for cash-back rewards, the company explained.

The program will be called Friends of Fresh & Easy — the name of an email program introduced in December 2008 that gives loyal customers exclusive news and information about the company, along with special coupons and offers. Fresh & Easy said that program has 360,000 “friends.”

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Stop & Shop, a division of Ahold USA, announced the launch of Scan It! Mobile, an app that allows customers to use an iPhone 3GS or 4G mobile device to scan and bag their groceries while they shop.

Scan It! Mobile is being piloted in three Massachusetts Stop & Shop stores in Quincy, Braintree and Plymouth. When the pilot is completed later this year, Stop & Shop will evaluate the timing of a rollout to additional stores in 2012.

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Walmart is offering an instantly redeemable 10-cent per gallon discount on gas purchased with a Walmart giftcard, reloadable Walmart Moneycard or Walmart credit card.

Fuel, gas and diesel purchases made at participating Murphy USA and Walmart gas stations through Sept. 30 are eligible.

IRVINE, Calif.—

“With more than two decades of experience, Todd is an industry veteran and brings a wealth of experience and leadership expertise to his new role,” said Domier. “He has helped to build ASM’s best-in-class Retail division and as president of sales, Todd will continue to drive our Sales team to deliver outstanding results and make a profound impact for our clients and customers.”

Baird previously served as ASM’s division vice president of channel and retail leading the company’s Channel, Home Center, Retail Operations, and Organizational Effectiveness divisions. He has held a variety of management positions during his career at ASM including department manager and general manager for various customer teams and market offices as well as vice president of retail/c-store. Baird started his career as a retail sales representative in Sioux City, Iowa.

“I am very excited for the opportunity to expand my role and lead ASM’s Sales divisions,” said Baird. “We have built a performance-based culture at ASM and I am looking forward working with our Sales associates to continue our mission to grow market share for our clients and customers.”

Baird holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from Upper Iowa University and is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School.