The forum will provide a detailed look at convenience store performance for the first half of 2012, to be held at the Renaissance Chicago hotel in Chicago on July 31 - August 1. The American Wholesale Marketers Association and InfoRhythm, Pittsburgh, PA, will sponsor the conference.
Presented and analyzed by top industry experts will be actual 2012 sales by convenience industry distributors to 28,000 c-stores nationwide, and then projected to the full universe of 146,000 stores, providing the most complete and current look at convenience industry business activity for this year.
The InfoMetrics database, developed for AWMA by InfoRhythm, is the single largest database of c-store shipments covering all SKUs except direct-store-delivery (DSD) products and beverages. Currently, 58 distributors with 92 warehouses each week submit their detailed sales data to InfoRhythm, where it is compiled and analyzed.
“We have created an exciting, forward-looking conference that will use real-time data,” said AWMA President Scott Ramminger. “For the first time, suppliers, distributors and invited retailers will have an opportunity to preview current, this year data specific to brands – information that will be crucial to developing business strategies for success in the coming months and for next year.”
The C-MetricsTM provides:
- Weekly projected c-store dollar sales and units shipped and percent of distribution by item, across all categories.
- Data reflecting c-store sales for warehouse-shipped items, excluding DSD sales.
- Coverage for warehouse shipped categories such as tobacco, candy and snacks, reflecting total convenience retail sales of such items.
“Our distributor partners now have access to information that only a handful of manufacturers could afford until today,” said Viv Penninti, InRhythm’s president and chief executive officer. “Understanding true market opportunity is a prerequisite for sound category management – and we’re proud to make this a reality with the introduction of C-Metrics.”
Keynote speaker at the conference will be Renee Sang, partner and global director, Customer Innovation Network, Accenture. She will provide a strategic overview of retail trends, and discuss retail innovation and the emerging customer experience. Her perspectives and review of top line data and trends from C-MetricsTM data will help convenience supply chain partners identify future opportunities for growth.