Rising Stars 2023: Albright, Andrew, and Doyle
For the fourth consecutive year, Store Brands is celebrating those under the age of 40 who are rising through the ranks in the world of private label.
The past year has once again offered a host of challenges that required leadership along with new ways of thinking. From inflation to labor shortages and the need for additional manufacturing capacity, product suppliers and retailers alike are adapting to the new, ever-changing landscape. This year’s Rising Stars list offers insight into how a new crop of young talent in private label are pushing forward and continuing to innovate.
Today’s profiles include Emille Albright of Love’s Travel Stops, Karli Andrew of Albertsons Companies, and Josephine Doyle of Topco Associates.
Emilee Albright
Love’s Travel Stops
Brand Manager, Consumables
Within the growing convenience store segment, Love’s Travel Stops has positioned itself as a leader when it comes to offering shoppers quality, unique private label items. Emilee Albright is a big part of that store brand success.
As a leader within the Consumables department, Albright helped lead a launch of seven new product lines in 2023. One category, candy, has been a huge success in stores, hitting sales figures of more than 50% over her projections in some SKUs. Albright’s leadership has been described as pragmatic and data-driven, using metrics to meet goals with quality as the most important benchmark.
Love’s own brand products are continuing to resonate with consumers behind Albright’s leadership, who is getting started on updating the chain’s private label options in the Cooler category.
Karli Andrew
Albertsons Companies
Senior Manager, Own Brands Category Management & Innovation
Responsible for managing an Own Brands portfolio of 25 categories with a total worth of $365 million annually, Karli Andrew works to set near- and long-term strategies to grow her business and bring innovative new products to the market.
Her leadership of more than 30 cross functional team members and national stakeholders allows for analysis of key performance metrics, putting executional plans in place for assurance of supply, pricing and promotional tactics; assortment optimization; ensuring regulatory compliance of her portfolio; and driving market share.
Andrew has utilized her deep understanding of syndicated data to analyze and recommend ways to drive Own Brands sales, profits and market share of her categories while increasing productivity on the shelf through meaningful assortment optimization.
In the first half of 2023, she gained more than 65,000 points of distribution on core items within her portfolio driving sales and efficiency on shelf and through the distribution channels. Andrew is also leading a three-year strategy for the baked category that will help to differentiate Albertsons in the market while adding an element of surprise and delight for its consumers.
Josephine Doyle
Topco Associates, LLC
Sourcing Manager
As sourcing manager for Condiments at Topco, Josephine Doyle is responsible for negotiating with suppliers on behalf of the membership to provide best-in-class programs at competitive costs. In this role, she is focused on providing Topco member stores with the best products possible while managing turbulent shifts in her category.
As an example of her leadership, her willingness to go the extra mile led Topco to realize a multi-million dollar savings in their private brand honey program. In another instance, Doyle acted quickly and confidently in response to a main supplier of private label vinegar raising costs, which put Topco’s members in an uncompetitive position.
Through determined negotiations with other suppliers, she was able to offer the membership a competitive program. During an unexpected nationwide Jif recall, Doyle secured additional products to help the membership service the unforeseen increased demand for peanut butter, while negotiating on behalf of two Northeast members, securing a more competitive private brand peanut butter program in a competitive market.
Doyle’s coworkers have described her standout qualities as determination, willingness to collaborate, and commitment to her work, consistently demonstrating her ability to get others to work collaboratively for the good of the membership.