St. Paul, MN - National Co+op Grocers (NCG) announces today that Jason Stein has joined the national cooperative for 148 retail food co-ops as Director of Category Management. Stein brings a wealth of industry experience gained over a 16-year career at Whole Foods Market Inc., where he served as Senior Category Leader and led the organization’s legacy and pilot category management programs.
As Director of Category Management, Stein will oversee NCG’s product sourcing and negotiation for its popular promotional and pricing support programs, Co+op Deals and Co+op Basics, as well as uphold NCG’s reputation as an organization that prioritizes relationship building and mutual benefit.
Stein’s addition also positions NCG to develop and deliver a category management program for its virtual chain of food co-ops.
"I’m proud to join NCG, leading the category management team in support of member food co-ops," said Stein. "I’m passionate about food as social justice and there’s no better opportunity to help make food retail more fair and equitable throughout the supply chain than by working for food co-ops. It's exciting to be a part of a company that is a pioneer in the natural foods industry and that continues to succeed in a competitive marketplace."
"Jason’s demonstrated track record of progressive responsibility with all levels of retail at Whole Foods, coupled with his leadership role in their past and future category management programs, makes him uniquely suited to lead our category management team," said Ben Nauman, Senior Director of Purchasing, NCG. "We could not have found a better candidate; Jason’s hire signals our continued commitment to providing top tier leadership in product selection and pricing for our co-ops and our renewed commitment to the development of the NCG Core Set program."
"NCG is fortunate to bring him on board and I am confident he will play a big part in our member co-ops’ continued success," Nauman added.
About NCG
National Co+op Grocers (NCG), founded in 1999, is a business services cooperative for retail food co-ops located throughout the United States. NCG helps unify food co-ops in order to optimize operational and marketing resources, strengthen purchasing power, and ultimately offer more value to natural food co-op owners and shoppers everywhere. Our 148 member and associate co-ops operate more than 200 storefronts in 38 states with combined annual sales of nearly $2.1 billion. NCG is a winner of the dotCoop Global Awards for Cooperative Excellence and a Certified B Corp. Find a map of NCG member and associate co-ops. To learn more about co-ops, visit www.strongertogether.coop.
# # #
Media inquiries may be directed to Eric Davis (eric@harvest-pr.com; 612-424-7545).