FEATURE
2022
DATA DRIVES LEADING C-STORE SUPPLIERS Seventeen companies earn recognition in this year’s Category Captains awards BY SUSAN DURTSCHI, PAST TIMES MARKETING
THE WINNERS in Convenience Store News’ 2022 Category Captains awards program bring insights and innovative solutions to their retailer partners, while navigating supply chain and labor issue workarounds.
Past Times Marketing, a consumer research and product evaluation firm based in New York, once again judged the entries based on information supplied by participating companies. The 2022 Category Captains are:
As they head toward a post-pandemic environment, these Category Captains have built physical and digital research hubs to provide convenience store retailers with the latest research and support needed to maximize sales and profits in key product categories. Seventeen suppliers and distributors — including one new award for overall multiproduct category management excellence — have been chosen as this year’s honorees. Now in its ninth year, the Category Captains program celebrates outstanding category management by suppliers to the c-store industry. All entries were judged based on: • Product innovation; • Creativity in merchandising, marketing,
promotion and advertising;
• Use of consumer insights to drive entire
category sales;
• Innovative and dynamic category
management tools;
• Demonstrated commitment to meeting
the specific needs of retailer customers; • Efficiently lifting sales for the entire product category; and • Fact-based evidence of market-specific or account-specific results.
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ALTERNATIVE SNACKS:
Jack Link’s Jack Link’s Protein Snacks has established itself as a trusted category advisor and partner in the world of snacking and has expanded its reach into other alternative snack subcategories, such as refrigerated protein snacks and the nutrition category. Its winning entry cited: • Investment in developing category management,
shopper insights, business insights, and an array of other research projects to inform shelving and front-end strategies benefitting the world of protein snacking. • Focus on increasing basket size to combat the pandemic-fueled drop in retailer foot traffic. It
