New Specialty Retail Organization Forms to Address Your Needs

As you may already know, the board of ABC has appointed a retail board tasked with launching a new organization for all independent, specialty retailers in our industry. This board is comprised of eight retailers from across the country, representing a wide range of store formats and sizes, some who are members of existing retailer organizations and some who are not.

We’ve been working hard to get this off the ground these past two months, and we realize that you may be curious to hear what we’ve been up to. Here’s a short update that will give you a sense of what we’ve accomplished so far.

As of now, we have done the following:

• We crafted a mission statement that clearly articulates our role in nurturing and protecting the brick & mortar retailers in this industry
• We have developed a structure for the organization and defined the roles and responsibilities for the team that will ultimately execute on the goals of the organization
• After an exhaustive search with over 100 applicants, we have selected and hired an Executive Director, Jill Cartwright, who will be leading the charge to launch this new organization
• We created a brand identity for this new organization to reveal at the ABC Show that is fresh, modern and relevant for retailers, manufacturers and consumers

One goal in developing this single unified community of retailers is to give you the scale you need to continue supporting independently owned baby stores. We’ll be reaching out to you in the coming weeks to partner in developing new, compelling programs and products to support this channel. We’d also like to hear your ideas for how the organization can make it easier and more efficient for you to communicate with our member stores.

In the meantime, the energy that is gathering around this new organization will be on full display next week at the ABC Show in Louisville. We have scheduled a Town Hall meeting at 5pm on Monday October 15th in East Hall 4 of the Expo Center. We invite you join us, have a drink, meet Jill and learn all about this new venture.

This is a tremendous opportunity to have a positive impact on the specialty channel that’s best at educating consumers and launching innovative products into the market. We look forward to working together to build a substantial organization that will deliver the community, advocacy, support, education, and resources we all need to grow our businesses.
ABOUT ALL BABY & CHILD CORPORATION / SPECIALTY RETAIL GROUP