Dollar General’s Rick Dreiling Delivers RILA Logistics 2010 Opening Keynote

JOC Staff |
Orlando, FL - The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) 2010 Logistics Conference kicked off today with an insightful keynote address from Dollar General Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Dreiling.

Dreiling shared his perspective with attendees on the crucial role of the supply chain in retail operations today as customers, employees, investors and suppliers are coping with the uncertainty of a strained economy and legislative and regulatory overhauls.

“Rick Dreiling opened the day with a compelling dialogue and inside look at the substantial impact and competitive edge that strategic investments and process improvements in supply chain can have for retailers in this challenging economic climate,” said RILA President Sandy Kennedy

Dreiling joined Dollar General in January 2008 as CEO and was named chairman of the board in December 2008, spearheading the company’s re-emergence as a public company through a successful initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange on November 13, 2009.

Dreiling serves on the board of directors and executive committee of the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. In October 2007, Dreiling received the Jacob K. Javits Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his efforts to raise awareness for The ALS Association and support its work to find a cure for the disease.

Logistics 2010 held at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, saw record breaking attendance and marks the conferences’ 25th anniversary of producing supply chain conferences and focuses on distribution, transportation, international logistics & sourcing, legislative & regulatory issues, sustainability, and workforce diversity & inclusion.

Day one took a comprehensive look at the state of the retail industry, with top-level executives providing updates on the state of the logistics industry as well as their views on the legislative and regulatory environment including a national freight policy, surface transportation reauthorization and the potential impact of the Panama Canal expansion on global and domestic freight flows.

The program concluded with a presentation from Walmart entitled Sustainability 360: How Walmart is Integrating Sustainability Globally. In this session, speaker Matt Kistler, senior vice president of sustainability, addressed a variety of topics related to the company’s sustainability 360 strategy. These include plans to create a more transparent supply chain, efforts to drive product innovation and, ultimately, solutions that provide customers with information they need to assess products’ sustainability. Kistler also discussed other sustainability initiatives in specific Walmart operations and geographic regions, and major issues and trends that the company sees unfolding across the global economy.

Other notable presentations included: The Future of National Goods Movement Policy, by the Coalition for Responsible Transportation; It’s the Best Thing We’ve Ever Done: Diversity in the D.C. by Lowe’s Companies; SmartWay 2.0, Driving Supply Chain Sustainability by the Environmental Protection Agency.

RILA is the trade association of the world’s largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.