Content about Merchandising

DEERFIELD, Ill — Drug Store News has learned that Walgreens is reorganizing its merchandising and marketing leadership teams to better align the “strategic objectives” and to enhance the integration of those teams, according to a statement from the company.
 
As part of the reorganization, the role of chief marketing officer will be eliminated, and as a result, Kim Feil will be leaving the company effective Sept. 30.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Wednesday announced that it ranked 29th on this year’s InformationWeek 500, a list of the top technology innovators in the United States. Additionally, Walgreens was the highest-ranked company in the retail/general merchandising category. The annual list was unveiled at last night’s InformationWeek 500 conference in California.

SUNBURY, Pa. — Weis Markets earlier this week named Regina Tator as its director of private brands. 

Tator succeeds Bruno Garisto, who was recently named VP center store sales and merchandising. Tator will oversee the product development and sales and marketing for the company’s 6,300 private-brand products, including center store, healthy and beauty care, and perishable private products.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Thursday officially unveiled its new store brand, Nice!

SUNBURY, Pa. — Weis Markets earlier this week named Mike Mignola VP store operations and Bruno Garisto VP center store sales and merchandising.

TORONTO — Katz Group Canada, Canada’s largest integrated retail pharmacy network, has appointed Ken Keelor as chief merchandising officer, effective immediately. Keelor will oversee all merchandising and marketing functions for the Rexall family of pharmacies.

Keelor joins the organization from Sobey’s, a national multibanner grocery chain, where he held a number of executive positions during his 10 years with the company, most recently VP private-label procurement and global sourcing.

Ever see the movie “Pleasantville,” where the kid and his sister get sucked into their TV set and become trapped in a late-1950s sitcom? As the two introduce 1990s sensibilities to inhabitants of the fictitious town, the people and their surroundings slowly transform from black-and-white to color. The film is a metaphor for enlightenment, innovation and discovery.


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Success is often one of the biggest blind spots a company can have, because you’re so busy doing well you don’t have the time to assess what it is you’re doing. That is one of the core reasons for being for the Mack Elevation Forum, “a share group on steroids,” described program founder Dan Mack, EVP of strategic business development for the Swanson Group, which hosted its most recent meeting on April 29 here at the Hilton Scottsdale.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark has named Helena Foulkes EVP and chief healthcare strategy and marketing officer. In the newly created role, Foulkes will bring together the company’s capabilities in enterprise branding, communications, community relations, charitable giving, healthcare-reform strategy, government relations and marketing into one integrated organization in an effort to deliver even better business results and stronger partnerships.


WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — Newly promoted Rite Aid EVP merchandising Tony Montini isn’t new to the company, having served brief stints there in the late 1980s and early 2000s. But the retailer’s latest initiatives, and the leading roles that Montini and SVP merchandising Bryan Shirtliff will take in them, are the kinds of things that will let the two really leave their mark on the company — and on the industry.

CHICAGO — Walgreens' chief marketing officer Kim Feil was inducted into the In-Store Marketing Institute Hall of Fame Thursday morning in Chicago.

Feil was a seasoned consumer packaged goods marketer when she joined Walgreens in fall 2008. As company CEO Greg Wasson recently noted, she propelled Walgreens from being a good advertiser to a world-class marketing organization.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT’S IMPORTANT — Joe Magnacca brings to bear a menagerie of merchandising savvy that will help Walgreens on its way to well. That savvy includes some "old world" retailing perspective by way of Canada’s Shoppers Drug Mart, where a focus on beauty and convenience is paramount. And his recent meteoric rise through the ranks of Duane Reade is testament to just how well he connected with the denizens of the most-populated city in the United States through enhanced merchandising and marketing.