USPB Retail Marketing Program Receives Major Industry Award, Again

For the seventh year running, Progressive Grocer magazine, a nationally acclaimed grocery and supermarket trade publication, has recognized the United States Potato Board’s (USPB’s) Retail Marketing Program with its “Category Captain” award in the Perimeter: Fixed/Variable Produce group. The USPB is committed to adding value to the potato category for growers, shippers and retailers by expanding its collaborative program with retailers across the country and by sharing innovation and proven best practices to drive potato demand.

During this past year, the USPB continued to demonstrate its leadership position in the produce category through fielding research, conducting merchandising programs and sharing information with retailers and their suppliers. The USPB commissioned a market basket study that revealed the key role potatoes play in driving up transaction averages at supermarkets to more than twice the norm. New merchandising planograms for fresh potatoes were tested at four major retail chains, with successful results leading to widespread implementation in every case. And the USPB met with retail chains collectively operating thousands of stores to share shopper insights and reinforce the opportunity of driving incremental sales by communicating the benefits of potato consumption to their shoppers.

The USPB’s current Retail Program continues its progressive thinking that earned it seven consecutive “Category Captain” awards. Since its inception seven years ago, Retailer Outreach is a successful program that has grown to 15 retail chains (up from 10 in prior years) and is expanding the scope to also embrace the club, mass and specialty channels. The objective of the program is to communicate the latest in shopper insights, category trends and proven best practices with our retail partners through a comprehensive category review delivering specific recommendations to grow the retailer’s category.

During just the past three months, the USPB has conducted outreach meetings with nine leading food retailers who operate more than 2,200 locations between them: BJ’s Wholesale, BI-LO, Tops, Lund’s/Byerly’s, Giant Eagle, Save Mart/Lucky, Sam’s Club, Costco and Raley’s/Nob Hill/Bel Air. Added to the four retailers that the USPB is currently partnered with in either Best In Class or Best Practice programs, a positive impact on potato sales is already being made at over 4,300 stores this year alone.

Progressive Grocer will provide the USPB with a wide array of communications tools to inform the grocery industry of this prestigious honor presented to the USPB’s Retail Marketing Program. “Category Captain” is not just a Progressive Grocer award, but an industry award based on retailer surveys and financials, demonstrating the outstanding success of the USPB Retail Program to help retailers and their suppliers reconnect potatoes to today’s consumer—just another example of the USPB’s innovative marketing to increase demand for US potatoes.