Opening day of the AWMA Show was bustling with activity.
Photo © 2010 Exposures Ltd. Photography
Matt Henning of Cash-Wa Distributing Company was the cash-prize winner of $2,500 during the raffle during the first day of the AWMA Show. Here he is pictured with AWMA President Scott Ramminger
Photo © 2010 Exposures Ltd. Photography
The reception took place on the exposition show floor Wednesday night.
Photo © 2010 Exposures Ltd. Photography
Becky Spellmann and Brad Walters of Stephenson Wholesale meet with new AWMA Show exhibitor and show sponsor Kathy Heinrich of Crayola LLC.
Photo © 2010 Exposures Ltd. Photography
More activity on the Show Floor of the 2010 AWMA Show.
Photo © 2010 Exposures Ltd. Photography
The 2010 Convenience Distributor EXPO opened Wednesday after the educational sessions to a crowed of buyers seeking deals and looking for new ideas and opportunities at 175 booths featured on the show floor.
Show-only deals, which often provide enough savings for distributors to cover the cost of attending the conference and EXPO, are being offered by about 60 companies with a wide variety of products and services.
The early reaction to the new and improved EXPO during its first day was positive.
“I am encouraged by the positivity on the show floor, despite the tough times the industry has faced in the past year. Everyone knows the challenges we face, yet they are happy with what’s happening in the industry and it shows. We like this show because it gives us a chance to have a face-to-face exchange with our customers,” said Rob Wooliscroft, director of strategic accounts, American Snuff Company, LLC.
“I’ve been coming here for 13 years, and in the last three or so, AWMA has done an excellent job engaging the manufacturers by adding value – better show hours, stronger speakers, for example,” commented Terry Williams, vice president of sales, American Snuff Company, LLC.
Erin Kay, owner of Tasty Puff said the company has been in business for eight years, but we is just now breaking into the c-store industry. “We are getting a lot of interest and I think it’s going well,” Kaysaid. “I prefer smaller shows because you can actually talk to people and focus on them. I love how you feed us on the show floor!”
“I’ve already gotten some good deals from Cadbury and Goetze’s on their caramel creams,” reported Frank Falter, George J. Falter Company, Inc. “And Just Born is letting me take the show deal back to the office and I have two weeks to turn it in. I really like the fact they are doing that. I heard about the show deals from Convenience Distribution, so I was ready to buy! Show deals will pay for my trip and more.”
“We haven’t been at the show in a while, and it’s good to be back,” said Keith Von Zup, vice president of global sales, Just Born, Inc. “We decided that this show had lots of our competition, and the distributors and brokers as well. And the super sessions were very pertinent to all aspects of the supply chain.”
“I must say I’ve been very pleasantly surprised with the amount of activity we are seeing,” said the company’s co-CEO, Ross Born. “This channel is very important to us, and we want to support the distributors, which in turn supports the c-store. This is definitely more than I thought it was going to be.”
