IGA Appoints New Manager, Retail and Marketing for IGA USA - 07/03/08

Author: IGA News

Chicago, IL - IGA today announced Heidi Huff has been named to the newly created role of manager, retail and marketing for IGA USA. Huff, who begins her appointment immediately, will report to IGA USA Vice President, Marketing, Branding and Business Development Jim Walz.

In this new role, Huff will have primary responsibility for IGA’s Marketing Event program, as well as other retail initiatives, including at this time the Assessment and Gift Card programs.
Huff has held several marketing and branding management positions throughout her career. Most recently Huff worked as operations manager for Building Leaders, Inc., a Chicago-based sales training company, where she oversaw marketing and branding activities, and also managed the overall delivery of programs and services, including eCommerce, sales/marketing, and event coordination. Prior to her tenure with Building Leaders, Huff was a business development consultant working with independent businesses to develop marketing and promotional programs, sales training, and all related communications tools. She also brings extensive operational, marketing, and sales development experience from Corner Bakery Café. As sales manager, she was tasked with responsibilities to grow both the catering and retail brands. She also was involved with training and development of Corner Bakery staff across the country.

“Within the past year IGA has actively engaged in a mission to advance the power of the IGA Brand. The new position of retail and marketing manager for IGA USA was developed to align our organization to better meet current and future needs and opportunities,” Walz said. “We believe that Heidi will be a significant contributor to the IGA retail and marketing department. Her background has given her the skills necessary to work well with our Red Oval manufacturing partners, wholesalers and retailers, enabling us to better create the marketing and branding initiatives that increase traffic in our IGA stores and build consumer loyalty.”

IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $21 billion per year. The Alliance includes over 4,000 Hometown Proud Supermarkets worldwide, supported by 36 distribution companies and more than 55 major manufacturers, vendors and suppliers encompassing everything from grocery to equipment items. IGA has operations in 46 of the United States and more than 40 countries, commonwealths and territories on all six inhabited continents.