Food Lion intros tiered collaboration

The Food Lion grocery chain has introduced a new vendor collaboration program:

“Each tier requires a certain level of data sharing, a certain amount of collaboration, and a certain amount of resources to understand and share insights with each other,” Food Lion’s chief operating officer, Cathy Green, said .... Describing the effort as a way to help Food Lion become more customer-centric, Green said participating manufacturers will collaborate with the chain on segment-specific marketing and merchandising; store-cluster specific assortments; and banner-specific manufacturer programs.

It appears Green is well aware of what most vendors' first reaction is to any new retailer initiative:

She stressed that the effort is not an attempt to build a profit center. “We want to grow sales,” she said. “We believe this model will do exactly that.”