And the new members of the Private Label Hall of Fame are ...

The Private Label Manufacturers Association (PLMA) has announced its 2019 class for the Private Label Hall of Fame.  The new members are:

• Nancy Cota, vice president of own brands, product management, innovation and brand management for Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons Companies. Cota has spent more than 40 years in the industry.

"I’ve been able to see the industry grow from just being a value price play to being an industry that leads and innovates and offers products that shoppers trust,” Cota says. “It’s exciting to be alive to live that and see how private brands have evolved to that degree.”

• Terry Lee, who has spent more than 30 years of his career in retail, with most of those years spent in private label. Lee was vice president of corporate brands for Safeway (1996-2000), vice president of corporate brands for Albertsons (2002-2006) and vice president of private brands for Dollar General (2008-2011).

"As far as I know, I’m the only individual that has had the opportunity to lead private brands programs as an officer for three major retailers,” Lee says. “I’m incredibly fortunate.”

Lee currently works as a private brand consultant.

• Mark Krakauer is the president of his own marketing and consulting firm, MWK Marketing. He was first introduced to private label in the 1960s when he worked for a large food broker in the U.S. More than 50 years later, Krakauer is still impacting the industry with his New York-based business — and his vast private label experience — which he began in 1978.

• Patricia Nicolino spent nine years with Clement Pappas and Co. and Lassonde Pappas and Co. after Clement Pappas and Co. was acquired by Lassonde Industries. She retired from the company as senior vice president of marketing and business development in 2014.

“It was an extraordinary experience,” Nicolino says.

Nicolino helped bring a new thinking to the company in terms of marketing and innovation. She helped the company build strong relationships with retailers based on trust.

* Kurt Goldschmidt began his career in the paper industry when he joined the now-defunct Hudson Paper Co. For awhile, Goldschmidt also had his own business as a paper broker before moving on to American Tissue Co., where he spent nearly 20 years.

Goldschmidt was one of the first people to advocate for private label in the paper business. He evolved into a stalwart salesman of household private label paper goods, including paper towels, napkins and tissues.

“Private label was my entity; that’s what I pushed for,” he says.

To identify those worthy of induction into the Private Label Hall of Fame, the PLMA and Store Brands solicit nominations each year from a wide range of industry experts. The individuals selected must have contributed significantly to store brand development and innovation; advanced the growth of private brands through creative marketing, merchandising and promotions; improved manufacturing, packaging or quality assurance processes in the industry; and/or served as champions of store brands within their own companies, business communities and the consumer marketplace.