In the March print editions and online, Shelby Publishing is unveiling the recipients of its inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion awards, which recognizes retailers, wholesalers, distributors, suppliers/vendors and solutions providers that are working to advance and uphold diversity, equity and inclusion in the U.S. grocery industry.

ECRM and RangeMe are honored to be included among them, with our recognition in the Solutions Provider category! You can see the full coverage and all of the award winners here.

ECRM and RangeMe, together, have facilitated the product discovery efforts behind several retailers’ diversity initiatives over the past year, including the launch of inaugural supplier diversity initiatives from both Meijer and Schnuck Markets, and for the second year in a row, a diversity summit with Dollar General. 

In each of the above programs, qualifying diverse suppliers submitted their products to these retailers for consideration through RangeMe. The retailer’s buyers then reviewed the submissions for their respective categories on RangeMe to select specific vendors for follow-up face-to-face buyer discussions using ECRM’s remote meeting platform, ECRM Connect. Altogether, these programs provided retailers with exposure to thousands of emerging diverse-owned brands.

With the growing need for inclusivity and diversity in the CPG industry, ECRM and RangeMe also launched a Supplier Introduction program dedicated to highlighting emerging black-owned brands to retailers. These qualifying suppliers presented their products virtually to a panel of category-specific buyers from several retailers at no cost.

RangeMe was also the product submission platform for the launch of Lowe’s “Making it With Lowe’s” supplier diversity initiative and KeHE’s DIVERSEtrade program.

We concluded these 2020 diversity programs with a webcast on supplier diversity in retail and CPG – open to all industry retailers and suppliers. Presenters included entrepreneur and author Daymond John; Dr. Johné Battle, VP of Diversity & Inclusion at Dollar General; and Antoine Hinton, Senior Global Product Merchant at the True Value Company and was moderated by Adrienne Tremble, President & CEO of the National Minority Supplier Development Council, Inc.

Thank you to the team at Shelby Publishing launching this platform for recognizing these contributors to diversity, equity and inclusion in our industry!

A recap of ECRM & RangeMe's recent supplier diversity webcast