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GMA Honors Food City’s Steve Smith With Collaboration Leadership Award

GMA Steve Smith
Steve Smith of K-VA-T/Food City, left, is recognized with GMA's 2015 Industry Collaboration Leadership Award.

Steve Smith, president and CEO of Food City, has received the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) 2015 Industry Collaboration Leadership Award at the Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI) Midwinter Executive Conference, happening now in Miami.

The GMA award, established in 2011, recognizes an industry leader who has demonstrated excellence in fostering collaboration among consumer packaged goods industry trading partners throughout his career.

“Steve Smith has exemplified through his extraordinary commitment the critical imperative of trading partner collaboration that extends beyond the traditional retailer-manufacturer relationship,” said Pamela G. Bailey, president and CEO of GMA. “Steve’s outstanding record of service to the Food Marketing Institute and the National Grocers Association has fundamentally changed the way our organizations work together.”

Smith has held numerous volunteer leadership positions with FMI, including chair of the board of directors, chair of the FMI Foundation’s board of trustees and chair of the group’s public affairs committee. He also helped revitalize FMI’s board planning committee, on which he still serves. He is the only industry executive to serve as chair of both FMI and the National Grocers Association. As FMI board chair, Smith helped lay the groundwork for the Trading Partner Alliance, the industry’s preeminent forum for retailer-manufacturer collaboration. He was a champion of food safety reform and oversaw the establishment of an innovative recall management system to facilitate more effective communication between retailers and manufacturers during these critical events.

Smith joined Food City more than 35 years ago, serving in multiple leadership positions before becoming president and CEO. Founded by Smith’s father in 1955, K-VA-T (Food City’s parent company) today operates 93 Food City supermarkets (including 78 pharmacies and 84 fuel/convenience stores), 10 Super Dollar Discount Foods and a wine and spirits store throughout southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia and northeast Tennessee. The company supports numerous organizations throughout the tri-state region, including local food banks, the United Way, American Cancer Society, Boy Scouts of America, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Susan G. Komen, YWCA, Boys and Girls Club and Paralyzed Veterans of America Association.

“Steve believes in the power of FMI, GMA and other allied trade organizations to affect positive change within the industry that will ultimately benefit the consumer,” Bailey said. “He represents the best of the grocery retail community from the way he manages his business to the way he works with suppliers and industry stakeholders.”

The GMA Industry Collaboration Leadership Award is now in its fifth year, and past recipients are J.K. Symancyk of Meijer, Fred Morganthall of Harris Teeter, Joe Sheridan of Wakefern Food Corp. and Don Becker of The Kroger Co.

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