Call: 132
Fred Meyer has centralized all their merchandising in Portland. Paul Enderle is still the Produce Merchandising Director. Monty Laursen is the merchandiser for summer fruits and cherries. Monty handled the same responsibility last year out of the Puyallup office. They intend to promote NW Cherries at least five times during the season. They plan to advertise with a health message and will put emphasis on Rainiers. They intend to qualify for the NW cherry program and run probably two ads on cherries.
Fred Meyer moved Monty Laursen back from Puyallup to Portland. Previously, they had moved him to WA to give the northern stores more merchandising support. He is a strong promoter of the WA cherry and summer fruit deal. Paul Enderle has the final say on things. Monty is right next door to him, they work well together and I think this is a strong arrangement for the WA and NW fruit deal this year. Going forward, Kroger is going to consolidate things.