WASHINGTON, DC — January 18, 2006 — The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) announces a new, highly specialized educational program offering store managers essential strategies for increasing store sales, managing financials and improving leadership at the store level.
     

The conference, Developing Your Supermarket Smarts: Selling More, Wasting Less and Leading Better, will be launched regionally this spring. It will be held March 21-23 in Columbus, OH, and June 14-16 in Philadelphia, PA.

FMI will present the program jointly with retail food expert Harold Lloyd. The conference will be equivalent to 12 weeks of on-the-job training through the opportunities for interaction with experienced presenters, focused discussions, problem-solving and concentrated educational programming that stresses critical issues.
     

“Store managers are tasked with work that might not come naturally to everyone, such as interacting with customers and managing people,” said Harold Lloyd of H. Lloyd & Associates. “Supermarket Smarts will help managers develop and nurture these skills, which translates into better employee performance, improved financial results and a competitive edge.”

Three Days of Educational Programming Offer Focused Training

Each day of the conference will offer intensive instruction in a different aspect of store operations:

• Day 1: Managing Yourself and Your Relationship With Others — Participants will end this day as an improved leader. Sessions include traits of effective retail managers, time management for retail managers, building and keeping the team of your dreams, and using employees as a point of differentiation.




• Day 2: Managing for Bottom Line Results — Participants will better understand the economics of food retailing and learn techniques to improve the financial performance of their stores, prevent losses and reduce shrink. Sessions include creating a high-performance store and reducing business costs while maintaining a positive customer experience.




• Day 3: Managing Sales and Top Line Growth — Participants will learn to increase store sales. Sessions include successful tactics to build sales, developing a niche in fresh foods, cultivating customer experiences and effective selling to your customer base.

Experts Discuss Real World Strategies for Success

Field experts will provide participants with practical knowledge to apply to their stores. Fred Martels, a more than 30-year veteran of the supermarket industry and president of People Solution Strategies, will share 10 factors of retention and the main reasons that associates stay or leave a job.

William Alford, president of International Light House Group and a certified fraud examiner with 20 years of retail company experience, will discuss practical strategies to improve internal and external shrink.

Pete Luckett, owner of Pete’s Frootique and winner of Canada’s Independent Grocer of the Year Award, will teach participants how to move beyond price competition to create the ultimate shopping experience and keep customers returning to a store.
     

Robert Harris, former chairman of Alliance Foods with more than 40 years of food distribution experience, will show participants how to analyze financial statements to measure store performance, pinpoint problems and develop actions that will improve financial results. He will also teach participants to identify ways to reduce operational costs and make decisions to improve the bottom line.

Take-Home Action Plans and Follow-Up Designed for Lasting Benefit

At the end of each day, attendees will prepare preliminary action plans on topics studied that they can implement immediately in their stores. Post program follow-up will take place to support attendees in discussing their action plans with their supervisors.

For more information on Supermarket Smarts, contact Kimberly Roberts at (202) 220-0720 or kroberts@fmi.org.