The Supply Side: Wal-Mart supplier community news briefs

Bar-S Foods
Warren Panico was recently named president and CEO of Bar-S Foods. He succeeds Tim Day, who will remain as chairman of the board of directors. Day has worked for Bar-S since the company was founded in 1981.

Panico has served as a senior executive at Bar-S for 15 years, rising to chief operating officer in 2011.

Phoenix-based Bar-S Foods is owned by Sigma Alimentos, one of Mexico’s largest meat processors, and has vendor offices in Bentonville.

Diamond Foods
David Colo joined Diamond Foods Inc. in the newly created position of executive vice-president of global operations and supply chain. In this role, Colo will have responsibility for global manufacturing, procurement and supply chain and report to Brian Driscoll, CEO and president.

Colo brings more than 25 years of operations and supply chain experience to Diamond Foods. He spent seven years with ConAgra Foods in a variety of senior roles. Prior to that he spent 16 years with Nestle-Purina.

San Francisco-based Diamond Foods has a sales office in Bentonville.

Dole sells Asian business unit
Shareholders of Dole Food approved the sale of the company’s worldwide packaged foods and Asia fresh business to ITOCHU Corp. for $1.68 billion. The transaction should be finalized by the end of December after regulatory approval from China.

David Murdock retains the role of chairman also assuming the CEO position, as David DeLorenzo will join ITOCHU to lead that venture and resign his post and board position at Dole.

C. Michael Carter assumed the role of president and chief operating officer. Keith Mitchell will become chief financial officer as Joseph Tesoriero, executive vice-president and chief financial officer is leaving the company.

Dole Foods has a sales office in Rogers.

Coca-Cola Partners with HSN
Beverage giant Coca-Cola has announced it will join forces with omnichannel HSN in 2013. The partners plan to leverage their customer bases to expand digital sales.

The partnership will intertwine the Coca-Cola brand into HSN's programming events throughout the year including seasonal celebrations and include the most extensive online store of Coca-Cola merchandise in the world.

"HSN is dedicated to offering our customers fun, engaging retail opportunities and we look forward to introducing the HSN experience to a new audience and evoking that iconic moment of happiness that embodies the Coca-Cola brand." said Bill Brand, executive vice president of programming, marketing and business development.

Kellogg’s and Allen’s take part in Fred’s promotion
Dollar store chain Fred’s launched a card-based program that gives health insurance members discounted healthy groceries and over-the-counter medicines.

Participating products include Kellogg’s cereal, Allen’s canned vegetables and Mucinex over-the-counter medicine. Manufacturers fund the majority of the discounts.

The program will give members of an unnamed health insurer 10% to 15% discounts on 22 eligible products. The program launched Dec. 1 at 140 of the chain’s 800 stores in North Carolina and Georgia. More stores are expected to participate in the future.

The discounts will complement other health and wellness initiatives at the chain, including a comprehensive diabetes care program, according to David Mueller, Fred’s senior vice president of sales and marketing.