IDAHO FALLS, ID - After announcing his retirement from PMA in July, the industry veteran has landed with a new company. Category Partners announced recently that Steve Lutz will join its executive team as Senior Vice President of Insights and Innovation.

“I’m honored to join the Category Partners team,” stated Lutz. “As I spoke with Tom [Barnes] and his team about collaboration opportunities, the more we talked the more it seemed that joining Category Partners simply made the most sense for me, for Category Partners, and especially for our clients. I’ve always enjoyed looking deeply inside the data as well as emerging consumer trends to identify new business opportunities. It’s been central in my professional journey and is what I love to do.”

Prior to joining Category Partners, Lutz served with PMA as its Vice President of Member Engagement. Prior to that role, Lutz was Chief Strategist and Vice President of Marketing for CMI Orchards. He has also served as President and CEO of the Washington Apple Commission.

“Steve is a pro and we’re absolutely delighted to have him join our team,” said Barnes, CEO. “Steve’s ability to dissect complex business challenges, dig into the numbers, zero in on the heart of the matter, and offer realistic and tangible solutions to clients is second to none. He is a proven leader in the fresh foods, retail grocery space.”

In the news release, Barnes added that he sees Lutz aligning perfectly with Category Partners’ mission to utilize a broad spectrum of data sources and proprietary reporting tools along with primary consumer research to help its clients efficiently and effectively drive top line and bottom line growth in the retail channel.

Congratulations to Steve on this new position!

Category Partners