October 17, 2016, Toronto – Day one of Grocery Innovations Canada (GIC), the country’s premier grocery conference and exhibition has come to a close. This year’s show themed “Navigating the Future,” hosted a packed day full of insightful presentations and workshops as well as exciting competitions including; the Top 10 Most Innovative Products and Best Booth Awards.
Keynote Address
Monday’s keynote address, “Cost and Promotional Intensity: Pick Any Two” was given by Ken Wong (pictured), Professor of Marketing at Smith School of Business at Queen’s University. Wong’s presentation addressed the effect new technologies, consumer buying behavior and corporate concentration rates have on distribution terms. Wong went into why it is important to periodically review these factors with examples of the industry experiencing major disruptions as a result, such as Uber and taxis or Amazon and bookstores.
Workshops
The concurrent workshops led by top industry professionals took conference goers through a range of topics including energy costs, mobile payments and more. Steve Horwood, VP of Sales and Operations at Neelands Refrigeration spoke on how “Rising Energy Costs are Affecting Your Bottom Line!” with insights on pending climate change legislation and how it will impact decisions on store design, maintenance and sustainability. Shane Schick, Marketing Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief gave his talk on “A 3-Step Process That Will Transform Business Brainstorming.” Avinash Chidambaram, VP Product & Platform Development at Interac provided insights into the rise of mobile payments, changes in consumer behaviour, how it is affecting the industry and what to look for. As well as Ken Wong on “Small Box Marketing.”
The trade floor featured over 65,000-sq.-ft. of dedicated space featuring pavilions including popular favourites such as: Choose Ontario; Wine & Brewers; HMR & Foodservice; Health & Wellness; Global, Gourmet & Specialty and the New Product Showcase. There were also a few additions to this year’s trade show: The First-Timers Pavilion that showcased exhibitors taking part in GIC for the first time, City of Toronto Economic Development Division Area which explored local leaders in food innovation and the Wine Pavilion, which highlighted VQA wines and exhibited one of the biggest recent changes to Canadian grocery.
The below are this year’s winners in no particular order (see gallery).
● Mini Trainers (Caledon Farms) Booth 1008
● blk. Alkaline Mineral Water (blk.) Booth 1127
● goh-goh cereal (Sunny Crunch Foods) Booth 1533
● Almondmilk Pudding (Lakeview Farms) Booth 518
● Simply Simple PROTEIN PICKUP (A&M Gourmet Foods Inc.) Booth 422
● Coca-Cola Life (Coca-Cola) Booth 1409
● Mrs. Renfro’s Pumpkin Salsa (Tree of Life) Booth 1109
● Smucker’s Double Fruit Jam (Smucker’s Food of Canada Corp) Booth 1319
● Pepperoni Snackers (Freybe) Booth 1505
● Chickpea High Protein & High Omega Milk Alternative (YoFiit) Booth 434
The Interac Insights & Innovations stage was full of exciting sessions covering topics from reinvigorating centre-store business to creative uses for hot dogs. First up was Robert Graybill, CEO of FMS Financial Management Systems sharing the results of the 2016 Canadian Independent Grocers Financial Survey. Chris Yu, Galleria Supermarket’s Category Manager then spoke to the growing interest in Korean Kimchi, Gochu-jang and other fermented spices as a superfood/health trend and other upcoming global flavours in the category. Next was Samantha Lazuric, Maple Leaf Recipe Developer demoing creative and delicious uses for hot dogs in the off season. Lastly, Carman Allison, Nielsen VP of Consumer Insights discussed ways to reinvigorate the centre of the store and increase sales for centre-store brands.
In one of the most anticipated competitions at Grocery Innovations Canada the winners of this year’s Best Booth competition are the following: Best Single (Wedderspoon) Booth #1524
Best Double (Flow Water) Booth #1529
Best Multiple (Complete Retail Solutions) Booth #924
Best Marketed (Fresh is Best Salsa) Booth #613.
Natasha Townsend Manager, Public Relations 647.973.3832 natasha@butterpr.ca
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Shawn Rusich Director, Public Relations 416.822.5266 shawn@butterpr.ca
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