IGA Names Five Finalists for 2009 IGA USA Retailer of the Year

Chicago, IL - IGA today announced it has chosen from applicants submitted by its licensed distribution companies five IGA USA Retailer of the Year finalists. Of the five, three will be named 2009 IGA USA Retailer of the Year and honored at the IGA USA Rally Awards Banquet held in Merrillville, Ind., on Nov. 7 of this year. During that ceremony one of three will be awarded the additional title of 2009 IGA USA International Retailer of the Year for having achieved within the U.S. a superior level of excellence in IGA retailing.

Under IGA’s Awards of Excellence process, the five retailers will be visited by IGA executives for a store evaluation. Once the store visits have been completed, a panel of judges will name the three IGA USA Retailers of the Year. Those retailers will then be required to submit a short essay explaining how their stores demonstrate operational excellence with regard to service, branding, marketing and community commitment. The essay will then be used in the selection process of the 2009 IGA USA International Retailer of the Year. In addition to being recognized at the USA Rally Awards Banquet, the 2009 IGA USA International Retailer of the Year will also be recognized along with the international winners from other countries at the 2009 IGA Global Summit in Sydney, Australia, on March 15, 2009.

The finalists include:

According to IGA USA CEO Mark Batenic, the program’s rigorous and challenging standards create a fair and equitable process for retailer recognition. Included in those standards was the stipulation that all candidates have achieved a Five Star rating under IGA’s Assessment program.

“This year we received a number of exceptional applications from our select group of outstanding Five Star retailers,” IGA USA CEO Mark Batenic said. “It then goes without saying that our finalists are the elite among independent retailers, and that each of them is an invaluable asset to IGA and the communities they serve. We look forward to visiting these retailers’ stores, and ultimately determining those who will receive our prestigious IGA awards.”

IGA is the world’s largest voluntary supermarket network with aggregate worldwide retail sales of more than $21 billion per year. The Alliance includes nearly 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.