Convenience Store Decisions’ Online Roundtable series continues Thursday, July 26 at 2 p.m., when it presents “Smokeless Tobacco: Significant Growth Opportunity for Convenience Retailers.”
Registration for the Webcast, sponsored by United States Smokeless Tobacco Co. (USST) is free. Click here or visit www.cstoredecisions.com for registration details.
Speakers for the event include:
* Kit Dietz, Owner of
Dietz Consulting LLC. Dietz Consulting focuses exclusively on the tobacco and convenience industry supply channel. Kit is responsible for directing and managing the firm’s work in enhancing convenience channel performance, measuring customer profitability, developing new pricing approaches, optimizing category performance and is the lead consultant to the AWMA’s Warehouse-Delivered Snacks Committee.
* Dan Moir, Category Manger for cigarettes and tobacco for Minneapolis-based Holiday Stationstores, which operates 420 corporate and franchise locations in 12 states
* John Kelly, Chief Operating Officer, Vice President of Operations for Mountain Empire Oil Company/Roadrunner Markets. The company operates 51 stores in Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia.
* Ed Chrupcala, Director of Category Development for USST.
Focused Agenda
Accounting for nearly 4% of the convenience store industry’s overall in-store sales, smokeless tobacco enjoyed another strong year in 2006, according to the National Association of Convenience Stores 2007 State of the Industry Report. The SOI also found that smokeless tobacco ranked as the seventh biggest category for gross margin contributions, accounting for 3.75% of all gross margin dollars earned.
With fuel margins and cigarette profitability diminishing, developing a strong smokeless tobacco category is of vital importance for marketers. Among the topics the speakers will be discussing are:
* Category Growth. Thanks to a host of new products and new flavors, smokeless tobacco is among the fastest growing CPG categories.
* Category Incidence. The smokeless category is growing in part thanks to a number of new entrants who previously smoked cigarettes. Find out what you can do to market to this demographic.
* Retail Implications. Understanding three key areas within the smokeless segment will help retailers grow the smokeless business: 1) Impact of growth in category size and SKUs. 2) Is Profitability growth for retailers keeping pace with unit growth? 3) Focusing on innovation and new products.
* A Look Forward. Retailers, suppliers and consultants will weigh in on the categories future offering sales tips and market data aimed at helping retailers grow their smokeless business.
