Midwestern vendors: Hy-Vee wants new local brands

Your chance to get your new fresh produce product in front of a major supermarket retailer is coming soon.

West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee Inc. will host its next quarterly Best of Local Brands Summit in September to expand and enhance the product offerings at its more than 285 retail stores in Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin.

Since the Best of Local Brands summits began in early 2021, more than 100 new brands have been selected and are available to Hy-Vee customers, according to a news release.

This year, Hy-Vee continues to work on finding suppliers with diverse backgrounds and encourages minority-owned and women-owned businesses to apply for the quarterly summits.

The summit will consist of 20-minute virtual interviews with selected suppliers Sept. 7 to 9.

Hy-Vee is accepting submissions at www.rangeme.com/hyveebestoflocal22q3 in several retail-ready products, including grocery, produce and deli. The submission deadline is July 18.

Electronic Customer Relationship Management, or ECRM, and RangeMe are helping Hy-Vee source, qualify and connect with suppliers. All product submissions will be made through RangeMe, the online product discovery and sourcing platform. All meetings will be conducted through ECRM’s virtual meeting platform, ECRM Connect. Suppliers not chosen for participation in this summit will still be accessible through RangeMe and may be reviewed by Hy-Vee again in the future.