Penton’s Supermarket News Debuts SN Hall Of Fame
12/3/2007
NEW YORK (December 3, 2007) - Penton's Supermarket News, the leading information source for the $566 billion U.S. food retailing sector, today launched the SN Hall of Fame and named three industry executives as the first inductees. They are: Charles C. Butt, chairman and chief executive officer, H.E. Butt Grocery, San Antonio, Texas; Jim Sinegal, president and CEO, Costco Wholesale Corp., Issaquah, Wash; and the late Robert B. Wegman, who was chairman of Wegmans Food Markets, Rochester, N.Y. These executives will be profiled in the December 3 issue of Supermarket News and on the Web at
www.supermarketnews.com.
The Hall was established to recognize individuals who have made extraordinary and lasting impacts on the food distribution industry. Inductees will be named once a year.
"The Hall of Fame fills an important industry niche and is an excellent complement to SN's annual Power 50 rankings of influential players," said Dan Bagan, senior vice president of Penton's Food Retail Group. "The Hall represents the ultimate honor for leaders with extraordinary accomplishments."
The inductees were selected by SN's editors following an industry nominations process. Following are descriptions of the three honorees and their accomplishments:
- H-E-B's Butt has led his family's business into a new era with the desire to constantly grow and change to meet customer needs. In doing so, H-E-B has come to dominate many of Texas' markets. Butt has overseen the launch of many store concepts including Central Market, which combines a specialty store with a farmers' market; H-E-B Plus!, a superstore that mixes general merchandise with fine-foods; Mi Tienda, a Hispanic format, and its latest, Cypress Market, which combines the best of H-E-B. Butt has also expanded operations into Mexico.
- Costco's Sinegal has taken the company where no warehouse club had gone before - fresh foods, pharmacy and store brands. The co-founder of Costco, launched in 1983, has made food an important part of his warehouse club's merchandising package and has focused on catering to local tastes and in-store sampling. He is known for rewarding employees with above average compensation packages and considers labor a valuable asset to the company's success.
- The late Robert B. Wegman, who died in 2006, grew the family business into one of the nation's most respected and innovative supermarket chains during his nearly 70-year career in food retailing. He was credited with helping to pioneer the one-stop shopping concept, championing new technology and playing a leading role in promoting use of the Universal Product Code. He highly valued his employees and helped make Wegmans one of the most praised work environments in the industry.
Founded in 1952, Supermarket News is the preferred weekly news magazine of senior executives and decision makers in the food retailing industry. It provides coverage of news, events, trends and topics across the industry, including management, productivity, pricing and marketing issues related to fresh foods, grocery items and home health. The news magazine also produces its polybagged Supermarket News Whole HealthTM supplement, focused on the organic, whole health and wellness markets, five times a year. The magazine's Web site, www.SupermarketNews.com, is the industry's leading online destination, providing original content, e-newsletters and online seminars for visitors.
Penton Media, Inc. is the largest independent business-to-business media company in the U.S., serving more than six million business professionals every month. The company's market-leading brands are focused on 30 industries and include 113 trade magazines, 145 Web sites, 150 industry trade shows and conferences, and more than 500 information data products. Headquartered in New York City, the privately held company is owned by MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP, and its coinvestors. For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com.
CONTACT:
Lee Feldman, Peters & Feldman
Phone: (203) 341-8922
E-mail: leefeld@ix.netcom.com