Industry leaders gather in Hamburg for the NACS Leadership Exchange
On Thursday 23rd March, fuel and convenience leaders from across Germany, Austria and Switzerland gathered in Hamburg to network, discuss strategic challenges and experience new products at the NACS Convenience Leaders Exchange hosted by The Retail Marketeers.
Christian Warning, Managing Director of The Retail Marketeers and his team continued the tradition of finding unique venues and followed last year’s church location with Halle 424, a former industrial space that now acts a venue for classical and jazz concerts.
The quirky space housed an EXPO packed with the latest products and innovations including food concepts and cutting-edge self service technology. Over lunch delegates were able to sample products, talk with exhibitors and arrange business meetings using the Brella networking app, sponsored by forecourttech.
Photo: Patrick Lux
The day featured three ‘Hour of Power’ sessions where NACS President, Dr. Henry Armour, together with Christian Warning, spoke to executive leaders from across the globe about current strategic issues.
“The future is already here – it’s just not very evenly distributed.” – William Gibson
Echoing the quote from the famous science-fiction author, Henry Armour, discussed how COVID has accelerated change in the fuel and convenience retail industry. The future is here, but as NACS with its global network can attest, different countries lead the way in different areas.
Photo: Patrick Lux
To find the future Dan Munford, MD Global Convenience Store Focus/ShopTalk Live suggested that the key is to seek out retailers who are experiencing success and then figure out what works for you. He highlighted success stories from the UK market including the growth of EG Group from one site in Blackburn in 1997 to 6,600 sites across Europe, Australia and the US today. EG Group have seen success finding the right mix of established brands on their site.
Creating partnerships with convenience leaders has also been a key part of bp / Aral’s strategy. Michael Frischbier, Retail Sales Manager at bp explained how Aral and Rewe’s long-term partnership has helped the German market leader to make huge strides in the convenience sector and has attracted new types of customer.
Who is the competition?
As Phillip Angehrn, Head of Convenience Germany & International Gas Stations at Valora Group outlinedd, people fuel their cars on average every 10 days but data shows people visit the convenience stores 3-4 times per week. The store has become the main attraction for people to visit and retailers must find ways to stand out form the crowd.
Dan Munford discussed The Westmorland Family, the team behind the award-winning Gloucester Services in the UK. The five site network has developed a reputation as a high-quality farm store serving fresh, local produce.
Patrick Steppe CEO of Lekkerland SE & Co. KG said that it is important for c-stores to create authentic experiences. With bakeries a key part of German life, c-stores need to create similar experiences that help to change the perception of sites as fuel-only destinations.
Daniel Laubli, Senior Partner/Global Head of Food Retail at McKinsey & Company agreed and highlighted the need for retailers to create an exciting offering and experience for their customers. He added, that whilst technology such as autonomous stores and seamless checkouts is important, there can be a tendency to focus too much on technology and not on the offering itself.
“Data is the new oil, it lubricates retail.”
Today’s fuel retailers have more data than they know what to do with and the challenge, explained Henry Armour, is extracting that data. He argued that a human element is required in order to know what questions to ask.
Jochen Pinsker, Industry Advisor Foodservice Europe at Circana showcased the value of using data to understand customer missions and creating an offer based on them. Since COVID customers are no longer travelling to work in the way they once did. But, whilst the morning commute may no longer be what it once was, leisure mobility is on the rise, even surpassing pre-pandemic levels.
The conference ended with networking drinks and food, which was the perfect opportunity to discuss ideas shared throughout the day.
The NACS Convenience Summit Europe will take place in Dublin, Ireland from 30 May – 01 June, 2023. For more information visit: https://www.convenience.org/events/GlobalEvents/Convenience-Summit-Europe
