In this episode of Retail Sound Bites, Jeff Maloy, vice president of retail, sales, and shopper, and Rohan Mazumdar, vice president of retail consulting, at Kantar, join hosts Rachel Dalton and Barry Thomas in a discussion about this year's PoweRanking® findings.

Kantar's PoweRanking® report is the industry's leading assessment of best-in-class manufacturers and retailers. In an annual survey, companies are ranked on a range of factors, from strategic metrics to business fundamentals, capturing input from several key industry leaders.

This year's report found that in a year defined by market fluctuation and growth challenges, "relevance" is key to joint retailer and manufacturer growth.

View the executive summary to understand how to win the relevance battle and learn strategic imperatives for 2026 and beyond.

Exclusive | NYC's Meadow Lane gourmet grocery debuts amid affordability crisis | New York Post​

First Walmart-branded store opens in Africa | Chain Store Age​

The AI trifecta transforming CPG and retail​

https://www.retaildive.com/news/winners-losers-black-friday-2025/806610/​

https://news.adobe.com/news/2025/12/adobe-cyber-monday-hits-record​

In this episode of Retail Sound Bites, Rachel Dalton and Anna Estlund, VP of strategy, insights, and analytics at Pernod Ricard, discuss five critical steps to turn insights into real-time activation for commercial teams. They also discuss the blurring boundaries between alcohol and non-alcohol categories, the rise of modern health and moderation trends, premiumization despite economic headwinds, and more.

Have a topic you'd like us to cover? Contact us at Kantar's Retail Sound Bites Podcast.

Contact Barry: Email | LinkedIn

Contact Rachel: Email | LinkedIn

https://kriq.kantarretailiq.com/en/p-iq/insights/blogs/top-10-lessons-from-the-create-2025-restaurant-show

The 2025 Retail Intelligence Report | Progressive Grocer

https://www.grocerydive.com/news/amazon-whole-foods-store-within-store-automated-micro-fulfillment/804749/

https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-shop-exec-ai-is-powerful-tool-for-ecommerce-fraud-2025-11

https://www.modernretail.co/technology/walmart-adds-ai-generated-audio-summaries-to-select-product-pages/

In this episode, Rachel Dalton and Barry Thomas sit down with Bala Gurumoorthy, VP of Category Management at Ferrero USA, to discuss the evolving landscape of convenience retail and the future of category management.

Together, they uncover fantastic insights from the recent NACS event, Ferrero's approach to omnichannel strategy, and how category management is transforming from a back-office function to a true growth driver.

A few of our favorite insights from Bala:

• "Category management is evolving from back office to growth architect."
• "Don't just report the news—create the news."
• "Be bold. Stay current. Stay externally focused."

Have a topic you'd like us to cover? Contact us at Kantar's Retail Sound Bites Podcast.

Contact Barry: Email | LinkedIn

Contact Rachel: Email | LinkedIn

https://www.retaildive.com/news/retail-ai-chatbot-consumers/803573/

Dollar Tree enhances multi-price strategy with AI

Playbook: 5 Shopper Missions Every Category Manager Should Be Watching | Path to Purchase Institute

https://www.retaildive.com/news/retail-ai-chatbot-consumers/803573/

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/21/wawa-stealing-customers-from-wendys-burger-king-starbucks.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/26/style/nordstrom-catalog.html