LOS ANGELES, Sept. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Tod Marks, Executive Director of Market Centre Sales, Unified Grocers, will be a featured speaker at the upcoming California Grocers Association (CGA) Strategic Conference 2016 (Sept. 25 – 27) in Palm Springs, Calif.  Marks will discuss “Merchandising Health and Wellness” in an educational session scheduled for Monday, Sept. 26 from 7 to 8:30 a.m. at the Palm Springs Renaissance Convention Center.

Tod Marks, Executive Director of Market Centre Sales, Unified Grocers

The “whiteboard session” will explore ways for retailers from all store formats to capture sales in the growing Health, Beauty and Wellness (HBW) category. Retailers will learn how they can use market insights and their suppliers’ expertise to select products which have attributes that will resonate with shoppers and address their price concerns. The discussion will also cover the benefits of integrating HBW products into traditional store sets, and merchandising strategies that will call attention to them and make shopper education easy and effective.

Marks said, “By arming independent retailers with information and resources for successfully incorporating GM/HBW items into their overall product mix, we’re seeing them win back their share of this growing market from the big chains and reinvigorate both their HBW and conventional product sales. Shoppers like it too because they’re able to get everything they need in one stop.”

Marks is a 35 year veteran of the grocery industry. He started in the business working for a local family-owned IGA grocery store and continued his career advancement with companies such as Fleming and Tree of Life, holding a variety of positions in sales, marketing and procurement.  He joined Unified Grocers in 2007 and has been promoted to positions of increasing responsibility. He is currently responsible for Unified’s Market Centre sales and national business. Market Centre is the specialty, natural, ethnic and GM/HBW division of Unified Grocers.

About Unified Grocers, Inc.
Founded in 1922, Unified Grocers is a retailer-owned wholesale grocery distributor that supplies independent retailers throughout the western United States. Unified and its subsidiaries, which generated approximately $4 billion in sales during fiscal year 2015, offer independent retailers all the resources they need to compete in the supermarket industry.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/c2d0162a-be1b-434d-b644-2d74732b13c4

Contact:
Paul Dingsdale, Director of Communications
(323) 881-4150
pdingsdale@unifiedgrocers.com