- FMI recognizes Wakefern CEO Joe Colalillo for his entrepreneurial leadership in design and imaginative merchandising
Scottsdale, Ariz., 2017-Jan-30 — /EPR Retail News/ — Food Marketing Institute (FMI) tonight (January 28, 2017) honored Joe Colalillo, president of ShopRite of Hunterdon County, Inc. and chairman and CEO of Wakefern Food Corp., with FMI’s Wegman Award for exercising entrepreneurial leadership in the design of retail strategies and imaginative merchandising.
FMI President and CEO Leslie G. Sarasin commented on Colalillo’s honor saying, “Joe is a champion of new ideas – he has consistently embraced new industry initiatives that empower businesses to better serve the consumer. For instance, Joe was a leading proponent of the food safety training program, SafeMark™, ensuring all of his employees were trained and certified.” Sarasin continued, “Joe is a straight talking, honest broker of goods and services and he inspires our industry to maintain its relevance by his keen commitment to doing what is right for the customer.”
Colalillo is generous with both his time and counsel, serving on multiple boards and board-level committees, including the FMI Board of Directors and the Food Safety Committee. He has been recognized in the past for launching consumer-facing technologies, initiating seafood sustainability programs, cultivating associate engagement and implementing health and wellness solutions in ShopRite stores. Colalillo is also a member of one of FMI’s non-competitive share groups that exchanges new ideas to better their businesses, the industry and the communities which they serve.
A fellow share group member, Chief Executive Officer of Dorothy Lane Market, Inc., and the 2013 winner of the FMI Wegman Award, Norman Mayne, said, “I can’t think of anyone more deserving than Joe to receive an award that is named in the honor of an industry icon, Robert Wegman.”
Colalillo has maintained his family-owned business, founded in the late 1940s by his father, Joseph A. Colalillo. The Colalillo family owns and operates three ShopRite stores located in Flemington, Greenwich, and Clinton, New Jersey, and together, these stores employ more than 1,100 associates. In addition to his work with FMI, he offers his time to the New Jersey Food Council’s Board of Directors and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005.
Colalillo holds a Bachelor’s degree from Villanova University. Colalillo and his wife Jeannie have two children.
Food Marketing Institute proudly advocates on behalf of the food retail industry. FMI’s U.S. members operate nearly 40,000 retail food stores and 25,000 pharmacies, representing a combined annual sales volume of almost $770 billion. Through programs in public affairs, food safety, research, education and industry relations, FMI offers resources and provides valuable benefits to more than 1,225 food retail and wholesale member companies in the United States and around the world. FMI membership covers the spectrum of diverse venues where food is sold, including single owner grocery stores, large multi-store supermarket chains and mixed retail stores. For more information, visit www.fmi.org and for information regarding the FMI foundation, visit www.fmifoundation.org.
Contact:
Tel: 202-452-8444
Fax: 202-429-4519
Source: FMI
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