The Griffin Report of Food Marketing has named Rutter’s Farm Stores as its 2008 Convenience Store Innovator of the Year.
The Griffin Report (www.griffinpublishing.net) covers the food industry for supermarkets, restaurants and convenience stores from Maine to Florida, and has a monthly readership of more than 50,000.
Award criteria included foodservice offerings, store design, environmentally conscious initiatives and community outreach efforts.
“Rutter’s Farm Stores illustrates a history of innovation … that encompasses solid examples of the award criteria mentioned,” The Griffin Report said. “With this innovation has come success, and with this success has come an incredibly positive impact that can be felt throughout central Pennsylvania.”
The Griffin Report cited Rutter’s “ambitious growth plan” in 2008 that included an investment of more than $55 million to build 10 stores and 11 car washes, create 350 jobs and add more than $4.5 million in annual wages and benefits to the central Pennsylvania economy.
The honor continues a string of achievements for Rutter’s in 2008, including a second-place finishes for store design in the 2008 Retail Industry Awards (dubbed the “Oscars of the grocery industry”).
Rutter’s Farm Stores also ranked 16th among the Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies in central Pennsylvania, according to the Central Penn Business Journal, while parent company Rutter’s Holdings Inc. was No. 6 on the Central Penn Business Journal’s list of the Top 100 Privately Held Companies in the region.