ReFresh 2014 Conference Considered a Huge Success

ADC held the 13th annual ReFresh Fresh Item Management (FIM) Conference from September 22-25, 2014 at the Sheraton Sand Key in Clearwater Beach, Florida.  This year’s ReFresh attendees represented sixteen retailers from across the United States and Europe, making it the highest attended conference to date.

The ReFresh agenda included a variety of subject matter expert presenters, FIM software presentations, a retailer presentation and retailer chaired discussions.

For the second year in a row, the conference started with a Welcome Reception on Monday, October 7th, allowing attendees to meet with ADC associates and sponsors prior to the conference starting.

Sessions started on Tuesday, October 8th with a welcome and introductions, followed by an InterStore Overview presentation, which highlighted ADC’s InterStore FIM software suite hierarchy, as well as a look at ADC’s InterScale Scales Manager software system.

Additional FIM software presentations included in-depth looks at Production Planning, Recipe Management, Meat Management and Shrink Management tools.

Other highlights of the agenda included:

• “The Fresh Value Proposition” by Bruce Peterson, founder and president of Peterson Insights.  Bruce’s presentation discussed what factors motivate shoppers in fresh departments, as well as the future role of fresh. 
• “Super Natural Growth: The Rise of the Natural/Gourmet Grocery Segment” by Rod Hawkes, a Senior Extension Associate at Cornell's Food Industry Management Program.  Rod's discussed the rapid growth in the natural/gourmet grocer segment over the past four years, including the dominant players in this market space and the growing competition. 
• “Federal Regulatory Update: What Retailers Need to Know” by Erik R. Lieberman, president of U.S. Food Imports LLC and principal of Lieberman PLLC.  Erik shared the latest information on key regulations impacting retailers, including the proposed ruling on Meat Grind Management and the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
• “Reaching Shoppers at the Meat Case” by Karen Shearer, Strategic Account Director at Midan Marketing.  Karen shared the results of consumer focus groups that were conducted to help identify issues in the meat department, and reach industry-wide solutions aimed to assist shoppers and increase meat sales.
• “The Power of Fresh” by Anne-Marie Roerink, Principal at 210 Analytics.  Anne-Marie discussed trends in the produce and meat departments of supermarkets, as well as key shrink statistics.

Retailer Feedback:

•  “ADC brought together a very informative, creative and fun group of individuals.  Tons of FIM info received and lots of contacts made.  Presentations and guest speakers were all great.”  – Christy Fajerson, Brookshire Grocery Company.
• “I was very impressed with the presenters and breakdown of the ReFresh conference.” – Lon Herget, Associated Food Stores
• “Overall the conference was great.  It was informative and had great subject matter experts.  It was awesome talking with other retailers and I enjoyed all of the great speakers.”

Sponsor Interaction – This year’s ReFresh had 10 industry sponsors, including DBK Concepts/Zebra, Brdata, Datamax-O’Neil, Bizerba, Hobart, Janam, NBI Digi, Rice Lake Retail Solutions, Specialty Printing and Truno.