Scaling US Retail: An Evening with the Experts and Brands Who’ve Done It.
The US is the biggest prize in retail, and it’s easy to get wrong. Retailer buying cycles, margin expectations and promo mechanics are all different from the UK, and the mistakes get expensive fast.
On Monday 23 November, we’re hosting an evening at the SURI office with five people who know how it works:
Cristin Groce, VP of Sales, Walmart & Sam’s Club, Bluebird Group. Cristin leads the Consumables Team as VP of Sales across Walmart & Sam’s Club at The Bluebird Group. She primarily focuses on brands that cross Health & Wellness, Personal Care and Baby. Prior to Bluebird, she spent 20 years at Johnson & Johnson Consumer working across Customer Development in top Mass, Club, Food, Drug, Specialty and eComm retailers.
Michelle Vaith, VP Sales, Target, Bluebird Group. Michelle leads the Target Healthcare & Essentials team as VP of Sales at The Bluebird Group. She has spent 20 years in retail, including thirteen years on both retailer and brand teams. Her first-hand experience as a buyer and brand manager offer a unique and important perspective to her work today as a sales consultant.
She works with both emerging and well-established brands to build and execute successful retail strategies, strengthen customer relationships, and achieve growth and profitability goals.
Doug Waller, Advisor to SURI. Doug Waller is the Co-Founder of The Retail Navigator, where he helps DTC-native consumer brands launch and scale in Walmart, Target, and beyond. He has 20 years of CPG experience: insights at P&G, sales strategy at Coca-Cola, CRO at retail tech company InContext Solutions, and VP of Retail at Harry’s.
Accompanied by three Brand Leaders:
Mark Rushmore, Founder & CCO, SURI
Ross Murphy, Global Commercial Director, SURI
Katie Edmunds, Director of Sales and Commercial Planning, TRIP
What to expect
Fireside chat: what founders and commercial teams get wrong when launching in US retail, and what the best ones do differently
Open Q&A: bring your real questions on retailer selection, pricing, promo investment and getting a buyer’s attention
Drinks and time to meet other founders and commercial leaders
I’m hosting because at SURI, we’ve spent the last two years building our US retail business, most recently launching in Target. I’ve learned a lot from the people on this panel, and I’d like you to hear it from them directly.
Who it’s for: Founders and commercial leaders of consumer brands, in the UK or already selling in the US, who are planning, launching or scaling in US retail.
Places are limited, so we’ll approve registrations to keep the room useful. Hosted by Ross Murphy, Global Commercial Director at SURI.