Private Label Buyer

 

By now, you might be forgiven for acting like someone in the old Butch Cassidy movie by asking, “Who are these guys?” Last month, you heard from our new publisher, Brion Palmer. And now, here I am, eager to take the editorial helm at PL Buyer. Change is definitely in the air.

We’re changing to better serve your needs and help you be ever better at your jobs. PL Buyer is the authority on private label, after all, and that’s a mission we will continue to take very seriously.

But as you know, business is changing, and we need to keep up and lead the way by updating and evolving what we bring you. We want to give you even more tools to make you all stars in your organizations. That’s why you’ll be seeing lots of new features both in print and online, exclusive offerings you won’t find anywhere else. Stay tuned. It’s going to be fun — much more fun than Butch and Sundance had.

As for “Who is this guy?” — I’m a seasoned business journalist who is coming home, in a very real sense, to writing about the food and retailing scene. In my 30-plus-year journalism career, I’ve written about food — literally — from field to table. Early on, I worked in Washington, D.C., covering the USDA. Later, after a decade of writing about Chicago’s commodity markets, I was editor of PL Buyer’s sister publication, The National Provisioner, covering the meat, poultry and seafood worlds. I’ve also been editor in chief of Beverage Industry, another BNP title.

In recent days, I’ve covered the marketing side of the food business for PRWeek magazine and, most recently, served as editorial director of Marketing News. In each of those places, I’ve watched private label evolve from generic cans to well-designed and well-marketed offerings.

You know what the recession did to change consumer perceptions of private label. It will be exciting to write about what comes next — I am looking forward to it.

As PL Buyer’s new editorial director, I pledge to you that we will:

• Bring you exclusives you can’t find anywhere else.

• Bring you those exclusives in the most useful format possible, whether that be in print, online, podcasts, videos, industry roundtables or other formats.

• Constantly keep you on the cutting edge of the latest development and predictions for your business. We’ll cut through the clutter for you.