Alex Thomson, Presenter and Chief Correspondent for ITN's/Channel 4 News, UK, moderated all plenaries.
Plenary 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
Tuesday 27 May (14.30-16.15)
The imperative is to expand the grocery market in a sustainable and profitable way
for all by better satisfying shopper and consumer needs. The challenge is to define
a joint model that will delight the shopper and bring innovation to the market collaboratively.
ECR Europe Co-chairmen
Dick Boer, Royal Ahold, and
Peter Brabeck-Letmathe,
Nestlé Group, outlined the priorities of ECR Europe and how the movement will
implement new ways of working together.
Richard Brasher, Commercial and Trading Director, Tesco, and
Luis Cantarell, Executive Vice President Nestlé Europe, challenged
current working practices and demonstrated a new way of working together through
the ECR Europe Jointly Agreed Growth framework for sustainable shopping value creation.
Kasper Rorsted, CEO, Henkel, explained how Henkel has integrated sustainability
considerations into its business strategies and the importance of collaboration
for sustainable growth through shopper satisfaction and mutual profit.
A panel comprising
Dr. Klaus Behrenbeck (Leader Consumer/Retail, McKinsey & Company),
Richard Brasher,
Luis Cantarell and
Frans Muller (Member of the Management Board, Metro AG), debated
the
critical factors to delivering the Jointly Agreed Growth framework, linking this
with the work of the Global Commerce Initiative on people skills, incentives and
training.
Plenary 2
THE FUTURE OF SHOPPING VALUE
Wednesday 28 May (09.30-11.00)
Societal trends are turning the shopper into an increasingly demanding species. In this
plenary we investigated the important developments that change the value perception
of shopping and presented examples of successful business responses.
Kees van der Graaf, President Europe, Unilever, focused on the importance
of collaborative knowledge development in the area of sustainable shopping
value. He underlined the pivotal role of the
International Commerce Institute in driving cross-fertilisation and generation of
knowledge among academia, retailers and manufacturers. This was followed by the announcement of the winner of the
2008 ECR Student Award by
Robert Wilkinson, Vice President, Coca-Cola
Greater Europe.
Keynote speaker
Anssi Vanjoki, Executive Vice President, Nokia, provided exciting insights into the development
of new mobile communication,
how these drive the creation of new forms
of shopper value and how Nokia collaborates
with retailers to create value in the area of mobile communication devices.
Erich Harsch, deputy CEO, dm-drogerie markt, and
Alexis Perakis, General Manager, L’Oréal Germany, demonstrated
how they worked together for seven years to build sustainable and differentiated
shopper value. Highlighting strong examples of their long-standing co-operation
in targeting shopper segments, they showed why their unique relationship is a
vital ingredient for the creation of future shopper value.
Ian Cook, President and CEO of Colgate-Palmolive, set out his
views on how the demands for value from the shopper are changing. He showed how
the health and wellness trend can add value to shoppers and how commercial sustainability
is dependent on the creation of shopper value. He illustrated his vision with
exciting examples of joint shopper value creation in the area of oral health.
Plenary 3
HEALTH, WELLNESS AND VALUE CREATION
Thursday 29 May (11.30-13.00)
Consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about health and well-being – and
this
is affecting shopping behaviour.
What are the influences behind different product categories?
How are retailers and suppliers reacting and creating shopper value
along the value chain? How will EU rules affect the consumer goods industry and
what will the challenges be for retailers' and manufacturers' strategies?
In a keynote address,
Robert Madelin, Director-General for Health and Consumer Protection
at the European Commission, explained how the EU is working to achieve its goal
of healthier European citizens and offered a candid view on how the consumer
goods industry could contribute.
Connecting the dots between food and health, the Coca-Cola Retailing Research Council of North America for the first time in Europe unveiled its new
study on the wellness opportunity in North America, using new ethnographic and attitude
research to build a model for the future of retailing. Presented by
Michael Sansolo,
Council Member & President, Sansolo Solutions.
The issues were also be debated by a panel comprising Robert Madelin,
Michael Sansolo and
Philip Clarke,
Member of the Board, and International and IT Director, Tesco
Gianni Ciserani,
President Western Europe, Procter & Gamble
Dominique Reiniche, President European Union Group, The Coca-Cola
Company
John Zealley,
managing director-Products Management Consulting & Integrated Markets, Accenture