ACS

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At Summit12 ACS will prepare its members to take on the multiples in the battle for the high street.  The one-day Summit, which will be co-located with the National Convenience Show for the second year running, will advise convenience retailers on how to use their natural advantages to gain a competitive upper hand.

The Summit will tackle four key competitive areas; sustainability, community, people and technology in an interactive programme of presentations, workshops and panel debates.  The Summit will also profile top performing retailers in each of these areas, identified during an exhaustive ‘road trip’ along the length and breadth of Britain undertaken by award-winning retailer, Rav Garcha.  “The road trip will highlight ‘the best of British’ to inspire others to raise their game and win,” says ACS CEO, James Lowman.   In the build up to the Summit, several of the retailers visited on the road trip will be featured in the pages of Convenience Store magazine.

He explains that, though the multiples tend to thrive in tough economic times, the ACS is not about to let them have it all their own way.  “In the recession of the 90’s they bolstered their out of town presence at a time when land was cheap and government keen to encourage development.  This time they’re using their deep pockets to drive towards domination in all formats at the cost of the convenience retailer.  We’re focusing our members’ minds on strategies proven to out compete them.”

Summit attendees will be encouraged to pool their own ideas too.  In a series of breakout sessions, chaired by industry experts and focused on each of the Summit’s four themes, they’ll be invited to suggest and share winning tactics. These will then be voted on live by Summit attendees to identify the twelve that show most promise to become the focus of investment and development by ACS members. 

The Summit will be chaired by broadcaster, John Stapleton and key note speakers will include:

• Historian, author and futurologist James Bellini, who will look at the macro-economic forces that are shaping consumer behaviour and consider how convenience retailers can respond.
• Gerald Ratner, whose recovery from high street humiliation has lessons for every independent retailer.
• Spar’s newly appointed Managing Director, Debbie Robinson will be giving her much anticipated view on the future of the convenience sector.

Break out sessions will be chaired by Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management; Scott Anna, Principal of FMCG consultancy, SRCG;  Adam Leyland, Editor of The Grocer magazine, and Dennis Reid, Chairman of retail consultancy, RPS Global.

Debate at the conference will be fuelled by research into the future of convenience retailing.  Commissioned by the National Convenience Show and delivered by retail research specialists, him!, the research will be conducted among consumers, readers of Convenience Store magazine, ACS members and pre-registered attendees to the National Convenience Show.  “We welcome this NCS initiative, which will bring together the views of retailers and their customers to create a catalyst for customer focused change across the industry,” says James Lowman. 

The ACS Summit will share its ‘winning on the high street’ theme with the National Convenience Show, which attracted over 6,000 visitors to its revitalised format in 2011.  “We saw Summit attendance grow by 17% last year as members took advantage of the opportunity to take part in the Summit as they visited the show,” says James.  “We expect to go from strength to strength in 2012.”

Register your interest in the 2012 ACS Summit at www.nationalconvenienceshow.co.uk

Alternative dates and venues for this course:

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