by Steven Lichenstein

PL Buyer's private label supplier recognition program continues to strengthen its roots.

This issue celebrates our fourth annual Category Colonel Awards program. When the program was first created in 2001, we knew that we were initiating an important, and long overdue, private label supplier recognition program. However, we had no idea how strongly the program would resonate within the industry, becoming the highly regarded event that it is today.

We're all aware of the handful of major issues that many times pit retailers up against suppliers, and vice versa. These issues are well-known and widely debated - online auction activity, pricing structures, profit margins and more. Given this environment, some within the industry may laugh at the idea of true "collaboration" or "partnerships." We do not.

While the words "fair play" can be stretched to their limits in many retailer/supplier relationships, this industry was founded, and will continue to grow, based on one absolute constant - retailers and suppliers must work together in a collaborative way to achieve a common goal.

As the voice of the private label industry, at PL Buyer we believe that our role (beyond being the provider of information) is to make every effort to foster the kind of effort it takes to bring "buyer and seller" together. In that spirit, the Category Colonel Awards program was born. And with that same spirit, the program continues to grow in meaning and stature.

Casting a Ballot

In the past four years, we have asked retailers to cast their votes for those suppliers who are truly the best partners. We've asked them to vote for those companies that go beyond being simply a supplier of product - those companies that work hand-in-hand to build the retailer's store brand programs.

And that's what makes the Category Colonel Award program far different and far more meaningful than most any other industry recognition program. These results are based solely on responses from the supplier's retail customers.

PL Buyer is simply the "messenger."

During the course of the past three months, we have taken many steps to generate responses from the retail community. It was an exhaustive effort. We featured the ballot in PL Buyer, sent the ballot to retailers via e-mail and featured the ballot online at the PL Buyer Web site. We also went a step further this year by "weighting" the ballots that were cast. This year, entries from a chain with 1,000 stores carried more strength than an entry from a chain with only 20 stores.

Cheers to Category Colonels!

Our congratulations go out to all of the suppliers who were voted a Category Colonel by their retail trading partners. For those of you that did not make it this year, take heart, 2005 is right around the corner.