Attendance at the recently held 2019 National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association (NFRA) Convention in Orlando, Florida, was the highest since 1994 with over 1,350 delegates on hand for a four-day gathering that hosted an estimated 3,000 business appointments with leading retailers, featured panel discussions, motivational speakers, the Taste of Excellence Reception featuring products from 51 frozen and refrigerated food manufacturers and other meet-and-greet networking opportunities.
Ninety-eight retailers booked rooms to conduct meetings with vendors. According to a survey of convention attendees, over 65% of retailer participants held more than 20 appointments lasting at least 30 minutes each. In addition, some took part in six-minute speed meetings to accommodate new members and smaller manufacturers who may have had difficulty arranging appointments in advance. Twenty-two retailers set aside time for speed meetings with 100 manufacturers creating an additional 500 meeting slots, a 12% increase over 2018.
Golden Penguin Winners Honored
An Awards Luncheon during the convention recognized the 2019 Golden Penguin winners for the March Frozen Food Month, June Dairy Month and June/July Ice Cream & Novelties promotions. Winners with the highest scoring entries were saluted as Top Marketers during the luncheon.
Named as Top Marketers for March Frozen Food Month were: Frozen & Refrigerated Food Council of Northern California, B&G Foods/Green Giant, Mrs. T’s Pierogies, Harris Teeter, Weis Markets, IMPACT Group Southwest and C&S Wholesale Grocers.
Top Marketers for June Dairy Month were Frozen & Refrigerated Food Council of Northern California, Land O’Lakes, Albertsons Safeway Southwest, IMPACT Group Southwest and C&S Wholesale Grocers.
Named as Top Marketers for the Ice Cream & Novelties promotion were Graeter’s Ice Cream, Chris’ Food Center and IMPACT Group Southwest.
Hall of Fame Inductions
Another high point of the NFRA Convention was the Refrigerated Food Hall of Fame induction of John Larsen, senior director of space planning for Albertsons Companies, and Jeff Thomas, retired vice president of sales for the Crystal Farms division of Michael Foods.
Thomas spent a lifetime around frozen and refrigerated foods with his grandfather, Carl, and parents, Robert and Rosalyn, owning and working for a local food brokerage. He attended the University of Buffalo and served three years in the US armed forces, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. After discharge from the military his career in the food sector began as a driver for Byrne Dairy in upstate New York before joining the family business as a salesman for the Reith, Hogan & Hamer food brokerage. He later entered the frozen food industry in earnest, working first at Seneca Foods and later at Sara Lee.
In 1989, Thomas teamed up with Michael Foods to launch the Simply Potatoes refrigerated line – the first of its kind in the dairy case and still to this day one of the company’s leading brands. Over the following 25 years he worked with the Michael Foods team to grow the company from its formation into a multi-billion-dollar manufacturer of foodservice, food ingredient and retail products.
Thomas retired from Michael Foods in 2014 but remains active as a logistics volunteer for ICA Foodshelf, where he stocks and maintains inventories of foods to serve needy persons.
The newly inducted Hall of Fame member began serving on the NFRA board of directors in 2003 and was vice chairman of refrigerated from 2005-08. He rose through the ranks to become chairman in 2011. That year, NFRA partnered with Nielsen to conduct its first State of the Industry Report, which provided access to in-depth research on the frozen and refrigerated food categories as a benefit of membership. Thomas became a member of the Honorable Order of Golden Penguins in 2006.
John Larsen began working at Stock Market Foods/Thriftway as a grocery manager in 1984, the same year that he graduated from Washington State University with a B.A. in Business Administration. He was promoted to store director in 1987, and by 1995 was working as the promotional buyer/advertising director.
Larsen joined Safeway in 1998 as category manager in its Seattle division. He then moved to the Portland division as sales manager and completed the USC Food Industry Management Program in 2002.
Prior to the merger of Safeway and Albertsons, Larsen held the position of vice president of dairy, refrigerated in the corporate marketing department at Safeway in Pleasanton, California. Currently he is in charge of the space planning of all of Albertsons’ 2,400 stores and manages a team of over 50 people corporately, and 120 people across the divisions. Responsibilities include resets, remerchandising of the stores and store remodels.
Larsen, who is a member of the Distinguished Order of Zerocrats and Honorable Order of Golden Penguins, was elected to the NFRA board of directors in 2005 and was vice chairman of refrigerated in 2009. He served as chairman-elect in 2011 and as chairman for two terms in 2012 and 2013.
