Dive Brief:
- The Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) announced John Ross will be the new president and CEO starting in mid-October, according to Supermarket News. Ross succeeds Mark Batenic, who will stay on as chairman of the board until his retirement at the end of 2018.
- Ross is currently the president of Inmar, a software, data services and analytics firm that serves retailers and manufacturers. He is also the author of the book “Fire in the Zoo,” which looks at how shopper behavior has changed.
- “I am an independent retailer by DNA,” Ross said in a statement. “My grandfather owned an independent grocery store in West Virginia, and I worked retail from the age of 16 on. From lot boy to store manager, from merchant to CMO, I’ve been fortunate to experience operations, merchandising and marketing for independent, regional, national and international chains…I couldn’t be more excited to join the IGA family—it feels like a job I’ve been preparing for all my life.”
Dive Insight:
When John Ross joins IGA in the fall, he’ll be at the helm of a network that represents nearly 5,000 supermarkets in more than 30 countries. Sales for independent grocers have hit a rough patch recently, dropping 1.6% in 2016. Ross is being brought on with the hope that he can reinvigorate these markets.
Ross has made a name for himself by using data-driven insights to improve shopper marketing — an area where independent grocers have struggled in recent years against national chains like Kroger and Walmart. IGA's hope, no doubt, is that Ross will be able to improve member retailers' use of data in a cost-effective manner.
“At Inmar, Ross championed the rise of the technology-empowered shopper and advanced the role data analytics play in marketing and retail,” IGA noted in the release. “Foremost in his accomplishments was pioneering new customer scoring and analytics tools to parse shopper data and manage loyalty for retail clients in categories ranging from specialty pharmacy and health to traditional grocery, convenience, discount and mass merchandising.” The hope is that Ross can take this same system and make it work for independent grocers.
Ross is joining IGA at a critical time for struggling independent retailers. Central Grocers and Marsh Supermarkets filed for bankruptcy in May of this year, and many others are losing customers to larger retailers that can leverage their scale for better pricing and merchandising. Independent markets have also suffered from the incursion of alternate formats, price deflation and declining sales in the center of the store. Without the deep financial reserves many large chains enjoy, independents have struggled.
Despite these challenges, independent grocers have advantages that larger competitors do not. Customers often have a more personal relationship with owners and employees of smaller markets, and appreciate their more intimate product understanding. Even though independent grocers are seeing sales slip, that’s not stopping them from opening up new locations. At least six independent grocers have opened in the Washington, D.C. area since 2015, and additional openings are expected to follow, according to the Washington Post.
If Ross meets IGA’s hopes for his tenure, expect small markets to make incremental sales gains as they position themselves as a service-first alternative to larger competitors.