Top Women In Store Brands 2023: Rebecca Montemarano
For more than a decade, Store Brands and Women Impacting Storebrand Excellence (WISE) have teamed to honor women across the private label industry who have had and continue to have a major impact in the store brand segment.
From supply chain, to sales, marketing, finance and more, members of the Class of 2023 each play a vital role in moving store brands forward amid new and on-going challenges that include rising prices, capacity issues with manufacturers, and evolving demand from consumers.
The following is the profile of Rebecca Montemarano of Wakefern Food Corporation, the 2023 honoree in the Innovation category.
Driving Innovation
Wakefern supplies private label products to a number of east coast grocers, including Price Rite, ShopRite, and Fresh Grocery. The woman driving this effort is Rebecca Montemarano, Wakefern’s lead innovation and category manager for Own Brands.
Working through more than 250 categories and with more than 75 category managers, Montemarano is the primary contact of the innovation efforts within Wakefern’s private label portfolio. She finds trends in restaurants, food and beverage conferences and from individual suppliers and prepares data for each workshop to determine how Wakefern can get ahead of future innovation. She prepares samples to ensure category managers understand the potential for innovative items.
Montemarano also hosts two product summits annually to better collaborate with suppliers to drive “new to world” products. In 2023, she hosted an Innovation Summit with supply partners to hit vegan and keto trends, and a Supplier Diversity summit to better partner with smaller, diverse suppliers to help get their foot in the grocery industry. Montemarano has spearheaded these summits to ensure face-to-face interaction and a better grasp of supplier ability with customer needs.
Apart from direct innovation, she is also responsible for all marketing aspects of new launches, which includes everything from commercials to TikTok influencers to “freeosk”/demos in store.
Montemarano said that her work is paying off, with private brands growing at Wakefern stores. Recent launches include a line of spices spanning middle eastern and Hispanic flavors, an Indian line including ready-to-eat meals and seasonings, and an Asian line of marinades and rice.
“We’re seeing that the consumers at ShopRite who are buying our innovative items are customers who our younger than our total store demographic,” she said. “They are shopping more often, spending more per trip, and saving more with our quality brands Bowl & Basket, Wholesome Pantry and Paperbird.”
