Grocery Business Group Holds Conclusion of Fresh Summit 2025 Event
NGA Fresh Summit Emphasizes Strategies for Boosting Grocery Profitability
The NGA Fresh Summit, held in Milwaukee from June 16-18, brought together independent grocers from across the nation to discuss strategies for enhancing profitability in the grocery sector.
Day One: Local Store Tours and Industry Insights
The first day of the summit kicked off with immersive local store tours at Sendik's Food Market, Woodman's Market, and El Rey Family Market. These tours offered a glimpse into successful independent grocery operations and provided valuable insights for attendees.
The day continued with sessions addressing topics such as AI-driven retail, smarter assortments, workable sustainability strategies, practical shrink reduction tips, premium product promotion, and expert marketing programs.
A networking event sponsored by Palermo's Pizza concluded the first day of the summit, offering attendees the opportunity to connect and share ideas.
Day Two: Focus on Shopper Experience and Community Engagement
Day two of the NGA Fresh Summit focused on shopper experience, community engagement, and the future of fresh services. Attendees walked away with actionable strategies to drive growth, reduce shrink, and elevate the fresh experience for today's evolving shopper.
The key strategies discussed at the summit for boosting profitability in various grocery categories focus on actionable insights from financial benchmarks, managing shrink and labor, optimizing margins, leveraging digital marketing and social media, and creating differentiated shopping experiences by category.
- Using financial benchmarks and Q1/Q2 2025 trends from the FMS/NGA Financial Study to guide decision-making on profitability levers such as shrink, labor, and margins.
- Expert-led sessions on shrink management, labor optimization, and margin improvement, emphasizing practical, category-specific approaches to reduce costs and increase revenue.
- Pricing strategies for profitable growth, where effective pricing models tailored to grocery categories help maximize sales and margins.
- Creating unique shopping experiences, particularly in departments like meat, to differentiate stores and drive incremental sales.
- Monetizing social media presence and digital marketing, capitalizing on consumer engagement to boost category sales and brand loyalty.
Additionally, peer-driven learning and fresh thinking approaches offer independent grocers actionable strategies across categories.
Advocacy and Support
The NGA also used the summit as an opportunity to address key industry issues. The NGA met with congressional leaders to defend a key nutrition program and warned the FTC about potential anticompetitive practices that could harm America's independent grocers.
Independent grocers gathered in Washington D.C. to demand fair competition and the NGA Foundation awarded scholarships for the 2025 Executive Leadership Development Program. The independent grocery sector, represented by the NGA, spans retail and wholesale grocers in every congressional district across the country, as well as state grocers' associations, manufacturers, and service suppliers.
Jonathan Downey, COO and SVP of the Washington, D.C.-based NGA, noted that the summit was a dynamic showcase of innovation, technology, and community connection transforming the fresh departments of independent grocers. The 2025 NGA Fly-In took place in D.C. alongside the summit.
In conclusion, the NGA Fresh Summit provided a platform for independent grocers to share best practices, learn from experts, and engage in industry advocacy. The strategies discussed at the summit offer a roadmap for independent grocers to boost profitability, adapt to changing consumer demands, and thrive in the competitive grocery landscape.
- The discussions on day two of the NGA Fresh Summit highlighted the importance of creating unique shopping experiences in departments like meat, as a strategy to drive incremental sales and differentiate stores.
- Using financial benchmarks and Q1/Q2 2025 trends from the FMS/NGA Financial Study can guide decision-making on profitability levers such as shrink, labor, and margins.
- Independent grocers can monetize their social media presence and digital marketing to boost category sales and brand loyalty.
