Jan 13, 2004
SCOTTSDALE, AZ — January 13, 2004 — Recognizing a lifetime of exceptional service to the community, consumers and the retail food industry, Danny Wegman, president, Wegmans Food Markets, Inc., received the 2004 Sidney R. Rabb Award from the Food Marketing Institute (FMI). FMI Board Chair Liz Minyard presented the award here during FMI’s Midwinter Executive Conference.

A long-time leader in the supermarket industry, Wegman has always shared the strategies that drive his company’s success. He is devoted to his work-scholarship connection program, which provides a future for at-risk children through jobs, mentors and scholarships for a college education. Through this program and others, Wegmans Food Markets has awarded $52 million in scholarships to more than 16,000 student-employees over the past 20 years.

Wegman was also recognized as a long-time leader in food safety and as the FMI Board chair (1999-2001), he helped focus the industry on technology — from UCCNet to the EPC to e-commerce.

“Again and again he has emphasized that technology must be shared if we are to fully realize the enormous benefits that it can grant each and every member of our industry,” said Minyard. “In these brutally competitive times, Danny has built a business model that presents a compelling force in today’s value-driven marketplace,” she said. “He has made this model an open book for any retailer to emulate, which, in the end, may be Danny’s greatest gift to the industry and our customers.”

This year’s Rabb Award makes history as the first time it has been passed along from one generation to the next. Danny’s father, Robert Wegman, received the award in 1981.