Lunch with the PLMA

Last week I had the opportunity to spend a long weekend in New York City with my wife, eat some great food and play tourist. In the midst of that I had the opportunity to have lunch with Brian Sharoff, the president of the Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) and his colleague Dane Twining, the Director of Public Relations. They were intrigued by the blog, the LinkedIn group, Twitter following and the entire social media experiment. They invited me to lunch to learn more about my interest in Private Brand and get to know each other. It was a classic New York lunch, a steak and seafood house directly across from the PLMA offices. As soon as we walked in Brian was greeted as a regular and we were immediately ushered to our table.

It was a fascinating conversation with topics ranging from kids and health to the evolution of Private Brand over the last twenty years. Over the next week I will publish several posts about store walks that I took in NYC as well as some of the insights from Brian and Dane. Look for posts on the New York pharmacy giant Duane Reade, the quintessential grocer of the city D’Agostinos and some thoughts on European clothiers H&M and the newly opened TOPSHOPS.

If you are not familiar with the PLMA take a moment and check out their website and plan to attend the 2009 Private Label Trade Show, November 15th-17th.