Dear AWMA Members,

Consumer trends, technology, the economy, regulation – all are having a profound impact on the convenience retailing industry.  As your company and your management team strive to maintain a competitive edge, expand your value proposition to better serve your current and prospective customers, and become more efficient and more profitable, it is important that you have the support, resources and connections to innovate and stay ahead of the curve.  

The AWMA Show is our opportunity to stay connected with the industry, to share best practices and have access to relevant business-building ideas.  The 2011 Show presents our strongest agenda yet with more than 18 hours of education sessions, an all-star lineup of speakers including leading retailers, industry experts and innovators and an expanded exhibit hall showcasing a new Foodservice Pavilion – a category that we should all be focused on as we look to deliver new solutions to our customers.  

Additionally, an in-depth 5-hour category management program is available for all distributors who register for the full event at no additional charge.  This is a program that many of us have been asking for and AWMA is delivering this pre-show program geared especially for those of us who are involved with category decisions – buyers, category managers, marketing, merchandising, operations and purchasing executives.

Having been involved with AWMA for many years, I can say that the people I have met, the new ideas I have been exposed to and the fellowship I have experienced have been vitally important to my ability to continuously innovate our company, motivate our team and most importantly, be a critical resource to our retail and manufacturer partners.

I urge each and every member of AWMA to experience the 2011 Show.  Your support of the show is critical to AWMA’s ability to advocate on our behalf and have the resources to fight for legislation that protects our core categories.  As the only trade association dedicated to serving our unique interests and business challenges, your participation allows us to continue to develop products and programs that help all of our companies become more efficient and more profitable.  An excellent example of this is the InfoMetrics Program, a powerful program that collects actual product movement data from participating distributors, aggregates the information and provides it to you to ensure you have the right SKU’s in the right stores.  Ultimately, this leads to optimizing the product mix and increasing sales and profits for your customers.

Be sure to register today and take advantage of AWMA Member super saver pricing that reduces your registration cost by 50%.  I can guarantee you that your investment will be far outweighed by the value you gain by attending.  

Thank you for your support – I hope to see you in February.  Please contact me at kcanning@pinestatetrading.com or Scott Ramminger, AWMA’s President & CEO, scottr@awmanet.org, if you have any questions.

Best regards,

Keith Canning
Pine State Trading Co.
2011 AWMA Chairman