Snack World - August 2015 - (Page 10)

SUPPLIER INSIGHT Dan Cooper The SFA ROI: Supplier's Perspective E ducation, government advocacy and networking: The three pillars of SFA's member value are growing increasingly vital to our industry's success as the snack industry's landscape changes and key issues such as GMO labeling take center stage in Washington. After just a few months of serving as president of the Associate Executive Council, I can see how mixing these three pillars is crucial to creating a path forward for snack makers and suppliers. This June, I attended SFA's Legislative Summit, an event that brought nearly 50 snack-industry executives together in the nation's capital to learn about and discuss key issues such as establishing a federal solution to GMO labeling. The SFA staff arranged nearly 80 appointments between member companies and their senators and representatives. As an industry supplier, I can't emphasize how important this event was for showing our customers we support them and for learning how we can directly impact the issues affecting our businesses. These legislative visits do make a difference. For example, Maryland's Rep. Andy Harris signed on to cosponsor the GMO bill the same day after our meeting with him to review the importance of that bill to the food industry and consumers. SFA is providing three essential educational and networking events that I encourage each of our members to take advantage of. First, the Quality & Innovation Management course, Sept. 9-11 in Columbus, OH, creates tremendous access to an ideal program for plant personnel to learn about best practices in quality control. The program is free for SFA members. As Dan Morgan mentions in his Chairman's Letter, SFA's Executive Leadership Forum (ELF) will take place Sept. 20-22 in West Virginia. For our associate members, no event provides a better opportunity to network with key decision makers from our existing and prospective customer organizations in a close-knit, intimate setting than ELF. Finally, SFA has teamed up with Georgetown University to offer the first ever Emerging Leaders Program, Oct. 25-27 in Washington, DC. Each of these programs combine the three pillars of SFA's mission to create resources that fuel and reinforce value for SFA members by offering services and relationship-building forums in support of industry growth. The concepts of value and results are embodied in every SFA program, and as suppliers, we must participate to realize the return on our membership investment! Dan Cooper President Associate Executive Council Chief Executive Officer Fuchs North America dcooper@fuchsna.com 10 Snack World August 2015 www.sfa.org http://www.sfa.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Snack World - August 2015

Snack World - August 2015
Table of Contents
Letter from SFA - GMO Free
Top-Level Education
News - Younger consumers fuel the healthy snacking trend
Gluten-free remains a viable, growing segment
Clean label attracts older consumers
Supplier Insight - The SFA ROI: Supplier’s Perspective
Legislative Summit - SFA Takes to the Hill
Business Profile Member - A Fortune 500 Mindset
Associate Profile Member - Customer-Centric in Every Sense
Snack Trends - Sorting Out the Snacks Segment
Non-GMO on the rise?
Products & Services
Ad Index

Snack World - August 2015