Associated Wholesale Grocers and the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have wrapped two data research projects for the 2025-26 academic year, the fifth year of a partnership pairing graduate analytics students with the cooperative’s private brand business.
Students in the university’s Master of Science in Business Analytics program studied new item adoption and pricing dynamics. The first project analyzed product adoption data to evaluate marketing and sales programs for private brand launches. The second examined pricing structures for AWG’s Always Save and Best Choice brands, modeling the effect of price gaps and economic factors.
Professor Ashish Khandelwal, who oversees experiential learning projects for the program, guided the student cohorts.
“Our commitment to the next generation of business leaders is fundamental to how we evolve as a company,” said Patrick Reeves, chief human resources officer at AWG. “This partnership does more than just provide us with data; it allows us to mentor emerging talent while gaining a fresh, unbiased look at our own operations.”
Multiple teams, multiple perspectives
Khandelwal said the structure requires student teams to examine the same decision through the lens of different stakeholders.
“The beauty of the design is that they have to analyze the same decision through the perspectives of different stakeholders, which forces them past the analytical results and into the business decisions and outcomes those results are meant to inform,” he said.
Students present final findings to AWG teammates in a formal presentation, which the program uses to build stakeholder management and communication skills alongside technical work.
“Looking at our data in different ways and seeing how students approach the science of it helps our teams continue to refine how we approach the sales-driving insights that can be gained from it,” said Kate Favrow, director of marketing and brand development for AWG Brands and a Gies Business alum. “We’re able to blend their scientific analysis with our real-world understanding to make impactful changes for AWG member retailers.”
AWG is the nation’s largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets, serving 1,100 member companies and 3,500 locations in 33 states from nine wholesale division support centers. Consolidated sales in 2025 were $12.2 billion.