Retail Produce Manager Awards Program

This International Fresh Produce Association award pays special recognition to produce managers – essential workers of the food supply chain’s front lines – who work every day to increase sales and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables. It honors 15 of the industry’s top retail produce managers for their commitment to fresh produce, innovative merchandising, community service, and customer satisfaction.

2023 Retail Award Winners

These 15 winners represent the produce industry to the consumer and work to increase sales and consumption of fresh fruits and vegetables for their banners and their communities. Check out just one of the many reasons they were nominated for this exclusive recognition.

Patrick O'Brien of Albertsons Companies, Denver, CO, Creativity, coaching, and training.
Patrick creates displays that look great and simply shout to the customer Buy Me. To drive sales, Patrick coaches and trains his people on these same standards and customer service.

Brandon Hash of Brookshire Grocery Co., Willow Park, TX: Profits and minimizing shrink.
Brandon is producing double-digit increases, which are reflected in his profits. He is known for his excellent fresh item management skills that minimize waste and shrink in his department.

Laura J. Marquand of Haggen Northwest Fresh, Ferndale, WA: Relationships rule.
Laura has an acute understanding of the power of relationships with her customers and suppliers as well. These relationships allow her to better feed her neighborhood and build sales.

Jenn Lane of Harris Teeter, Cornelius, NC: Holiday merchandising.
Over the last year Jenn has had a sales increase of 11.58% over the previous year, additionally outpacing her budget by 13.44%. For Valentines Day 2023 she outpaced 42 stores within the southern region that do above her weekly average sales by volume.

Greg Kimmel of Hy-Vee, Inc., Davenport, IA: Shopper-stopping artistry.
Greg wants customers to stop in their tracks and do a double take. Color is everything. As an artist, he blends colors and adds extra touches to create an unforgettable masterpiece within his produce department.

Skylar Leonard of K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc./dba Food City, Piney Flats, TN: Local love.
Skylar supports local farmers by having a specific section in his department dedicated to locally grown produce, in addition to informative signage about the farmers and their farms. He uses social media, radio, and store announcements to promote farm fresh, direct store deliveries.

Darron Hyatt of Lowes Foods, Southern Pines, NC: Displays – full, fresh, and clean.
Darron and his team have been recognized by their guests as the premier for fresh fruits, vegetables, and floral within Southern Pines. Quality and freshness are his goals.

Timothy F. Baker of Orcas Island Market, Eastsound, WA: Feed the pigs.
Tim and team keep hundreds of thousands of pounds of waste out of the landfill. He and the store’s environmental team launched a program to provide food scraps to feed livestock -- a huge hit for the local pig farmers (and the pigs)!

Gary Lasalle of Price Chopper/Market 32 Supermarket, New Hartford, NY: Starting kids off right.
As a community leader, Gary offers school tours to teach kids about produce through a fun experience (including samples and games). Every kid takes home fruits and vegetables they chose themselves.

Olin Williams of Corner Market, Hattiesburg, MS: Trickle-down knowledge and training.
Olin's produce knowledge has helped him advance quickly. He is teaching the next generation of produce managers how to be successful in produce. His trainees take the skills they learn from Olin to teach their own teams.

Josh Alsberg of Rubinette Produce Market, Portland, OR: Great Apple Taste Test.
In the Great Apple Taste Test, Josh chose six out-of-the-ordinary varieties for a blind taste test with students. They scored the apples based on attributes Josh taught them about like taste, crunch, density, ability to display, and others. Then teachers turned this fun activity into math and health teaching opportunities.

Mark Bentley of Southeastern Grocers, St. Johns, FL: Delight is in the details.
Mark is well-known for his attention to detail and sharp produce merchandising abilities. Working at produce rebranding or remodeling activities, he implements the latest and greatest department layouts.

Mitch Harris of Strack & Van Til, Valparaiso, IN: The trusted source.
Mitch is always looking for the best tasting produce, either unique or everyday items. He has developed a following of customers who know and trust that “if Mitch says it's good, then it's probably great.”

Breanna Norris of The GIANT Company, Doylestown, PA: Storytelling to drive sales.
Breanna is strategic and thoughtful. Her creativity elevates displays, particularly amplifying special events, holidays, and promotions to tell the stories of our brand and supplier partners while driving sales.

Christopher DeMarie of Tops Markets, Dunkirk, NY: Merchandising reinvention spurs success.
Christopher reinvented Hispanic offerings as that demographic showed promise at his location. Using an innovative fixture and refreshing the item mix and merchandising, this category has grown to staggering heights and his reinvention has been implemented at sister stores.

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Leadership

Retail Produce Manager Award winners are the ‘best of the best’ in their profession. At the 2022 Global Produce & Floral Show, they will be VIPs meeting with the produce industry’s top executives. Every manager will return with an expanded knowledge of their role in the success of the industry.

Celebration of Excellence

Retail Produce Manager Award winners receive industry-wide recognition in trade publications, within their company, and in Anaheim at the Global Produce and Floral Show before their colleagues and customers.

Education

Retail Produce Manager Award winners have the opportunity to attend education programs and gain valuable knowledge and insights to share with customers when they return to their stores.

Networking

Retail Produce Manager Award winners enjoy numerous opportunities to interact with Global Produce & Floral Show attendees and exhibitors. The exposition, meetings, receptions and events will allow winners to get to know the people who bring their produce to market.

Tamra Barnes Harps Food Store Missouri	Joshua 'Josh' Combs Food City Galax, Virginia	Javier Contreras Food Market Franklin, Wisconsin
Carmen Dipiazza Jr. Price Chopper Guilderland, New York	Morgan Dodge Pilgrim's Market Coeur d'Alene, Idaho	Tyler Doggett Corner Market Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Micah Fabrizio Albertsons Safeway Denver, Colorado	Clint Fraze New Seasons Market Happy Valley, Oregon	Lisa Graner Coborn's Inc. Bismarck, North Dakota
Mitchell 'Mitch' John Hamelin Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Ajax, Ontario, Canada	David Heetderks SpartanNash's Forest Hills Foods Grand Rapids, Michigan	Chris Jorgensen Food Lion, Inc. Gloucester, Virginia
Troy Kopriva Hy-Vee, Inc. Grimes, Iowa	Grant Naylor Macey's Providence, Utah	Mohamad 'Mo' Qadir Harris-Teeter Super Markets Purcellville, Virginia
Bridget Robin Super One Foods Opelousas, Louisiana	Alex Samario Gelson's Markets Sante Fe Springs, California	Bob Smith Mariano's Oak Lawn, Illinois
Rich Spader Big Y Foods, Inc. Derby, Connecticut	Douglas Storey Tops Friendly Markets North Tonawanda, New Yori	Michelle Tarwater Fred Meyer Stores, Inc. Issaquah, Washington
Donald 'Don' Eugene Uttley Mount Royal Market Duluth, Minnesota	Dan Villone Brookshire Grocery Company Kilgore Texax	Calvin 'The Goat' Yednak JEWEL-OSCO Munster, Indiana
William ' Will' Yontz The Giant Company Martinsburg, West Virgina

Fadi Abou-Ali Metro, Inc.	Toni Adams Harps Food Stores Inc.	Lee Anderson Hy-Vee, Inc. Omaha, NE
Bobby Andrake Haggen Northwest Fresh Olympia, WA	Chad Bays Food City Prestonsburg, KY	Billy Blalock The Kroger Company
Maria Broda West Point Commissary West Point, NY	Jacqulyn Brodell Meijer Greenfield, WI	Stephany Buonomano Bobs Windham IGA Willimantic, CT
Tyler Christy Harris Teeter Supermarkets Charlotte, NC	Mikaela Claude Sprouts Farmers Market	Chris Contakos Price Chopper/ Market 32 Supermarkets Schenectady, NY
Shawn Fast Coborn's Inc. Sauk Rapids, MN	Jessica Granier Rouses Supermarkets	Jesse Jordan Fred Meyer Bellingham, WA
James Keller Hornbacher's Foods	Peter Kenney Big Y Foods, Inc. Ludlow, MA	AK Khalid MARTIN's, a brand of The GIANT Company Front Royal, VA
Adam Klazura Jewel-Osco Naperville, IL	Karen O’Dell Martin's Super Market	Joseph Ortiz Brookshire Grocery Company
Apolinar Parra Gelson's Markets	Dusty Taylor Tops Markets Depew, NY	John Truncale Brattleboro Food Co-Op Brattleboro, VT
Jeff Wilmes Roth's Fresh Market