Excellence insights: Key takeaways from this year’s NU food industry summit – The Martin Group
By Staff
This past week, our team at The Martin Group made one of our essential food and beverage-related stops of the season: Niagara University’s annual Food Industry Center of Excellence Summit.
This year’s edition inside Buffalo’s Hyatt Regency provided another engaging day of delicious food, industry camaraderie, and thought leaders sharing cutting-edge insights and industry breakthroughs across keynote addresses and panel discussions.
With an established event theme of “Built to Thrive: Next is Now,” our team was able to take in tips and trade secrets from of the brightest minds shaping the industry; gain a greater understanding of some of the significant innovations set to alter the future of food; and envision how our work could either be adjusted or augmented by these exciting developments.
In the event’s aftermath, we met up with our team members in attendance and asked for some of the most interesting takeaways that came from this year’s Summit.
Here’s what they said:
Lisa Bellacicco, Chief Operating Officer
What I learned: Unstaffed convenience stores are finding success overseas. Could the U.S. be next?
Why I found it insightful: South Korea consumers are flooding the massively popular zeroSTORE, an unmanned, 24/7 convenience store franchise specializing in low-sugar, low-calorie, zero-sugar, and protein-dense products such as snacks, drinks, sauces, meal alternatives, and desserts. Since its official launch in 2024, zeroSTORE has expanded to over 224 locations across South Korea. This is an example of a brand strategy that merged cultural shifts, unique consumer behaviors, and retail innovation with an equally smart execution, gathering elusive online health brands and placing them in stores near neighborhoods, university campuses, and dense office districts.
The question it left me with is, “Would we ever see an unstaffed, 24/7, zero-sugar-only boutique store in a typical U.S. market anytime soon?”
Kendra Breen, Account Director
What I learned: Bundles are making mealtime easier.
Why I found this insightful: Grocery stores are increasingly packaging everything needed for a complete meal or recipe and selling it together, whether it’s breakfast, dinner, or a specialty cocktail. It’s a smart move that takes the guesswork out of mealtime and makes the shopping trip that much simpler. Bundles tap into the growing demand for convenience: fewer decisions, less planning, and a clear path from cart to table.
Could this reshape how stores think about merchandising? It certainly seems headed that way.
John Jiloty, Senior Vice President – Growth and Insights
What I learned: Think like your customers dream.
Why I found this insightful: Mary Purk’s AI talk was so insightful in terms of directing focus to the business outcome and not the AI tool first. On the customer side, she talked about how consumers are thinking of entertaining like Martha Stewart or Joanna Gaines so that should be the level your recommendations aspire toward. And then on the internal side, she talked about how AI is so much more than IT and really needs to involve the strategy and goals of your entire business.
Technology itself will not be your differentiator; it will be how you use it—and the people who are leading the way.
Brynne Deppas, Senior Account Manager
What I learned: Smaller can be smarter when it comes to convenience and innovation.
Why I found this insightful: One speaker highlighted Sprouts’ strategy of shrinking the box stood out to win on convenience (proximity and speed) while creating room to test entrepreneurial products and new ideas. Smaller formats seem to make experimentation less risky and let retailers react faster to what shoppers want. It will be interesting to see whether more grocers follow suit and trade square footage for agility.
Kate Measer, Director of Public Relations
What I learned: Washington’s political climate ripples out to the food industry—and can impact your neighborhood grocery store.
Why I found this insightful: As Chief Public Affairs and Advocacy Officer at the National Grocers Association (NGA), Laura Strange used her presentation to show how specific D.C. decisions play out for independent grocers, and how direct the line from policy debate to produce aisle can be. Most people running a food business don’t have time to follow every twist and turn in Washington, and that’s fine. Someone just has to be keeping an eye on it. Issues like SNAP, tariffs, regulation, and competition policy have a way of making their way from Capitol Hill to the store floor, whether through rising costs, changing shopping habits, or new operational challenges.
The bigger lesson for me wasn’t that politics shapes business; that part is obvious. It’s that the policy landscape is crowded and chaotic, and food businesses need trusted voices who can filter out the noise and focus on what will actually affect their bottom line.
Andi Krollman, Vice President – Account Service
What I learned: Don’t worry about the specific AI agent—worry about the strategy for the agent.
Why I found this insightful: Figuring out the strategy and workflow for how you want to use an AI agent is just as important as the agent you actually pick. Work through how you want to use the system and look into the AI agent that works best for your needs.
Marley Gleason, Senior Digital Marketing Manager
What I learned: Young shoppers are using products to signal identity.
Why I found this so insightful: If shoppers are using products to signal identity, it makes brand messaging that much more important. Brands need to be developing their products and their messaging beyond just what the product is why it should be purchased. Instead, they need to be considering how the product fits into the life, the identity, and the overall vibe of their consumer, and creating marketing strategies around that.
Simply put, it changes traditional marketing approaches from marketing why something is great to marketing to what the product actually means to the buyer.
Biagio Patti, Senior Vice President – Media
What I learned: Major national retailers dominate grocery revenue share, but consumers report higher customer satisfaction with regional grocers.
Why I found this insightful: This provides a significant competitive advantage for regional grocers. While regional grocers can’t compete on scale, they can win with a consistent store experience, local relevance, and a focus on service; and they can also achieve emotional loyalty and trust from their shoppers.
To learn more about The Martin Group’s extensive work within the food and beverage space, click here.
