We are less than one week away from the industry leading event of the year, ACS Summit, featuring a host of the most inspirational, motivating and knowledgeable speakers sharing their expertise. The conference, taking place on 21st April in Birmingham, is bursting with industry know-how, evolving trends and innovative ideas for retailers to take away to improve their business.
Kris Engskov, President of Starbucks Europe, Middle East and Africa, will be unveiling the key to his success. Previously the Managing Director for Starbucks UK, Kris led the UK to a number of innovative firsts, including the introduction of franchising, the launch of vending and Drive-Thru stores, and changes to the product portfolio for added relevance to the UK market.
Simon Roberts, Executive Vice President of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc. and President of Boots has over 25 years experience working in retail across markets of food, clothing, homeware and health & beauty. Since joining Boots, Simon has led their strategy to become No1 for Customer Care and has led the development of Boots’ healthcare proposition, given the unique opportunities and challenges of the changing healthcare landscape in the UK.
CEO Retail for The Co-operative Group, Steve Murrells, is an experienced senior leader in UK and European food retail. Steve is currently leading a transformation of the Food business under the banner of True North – a strategy predicated on listening to colleagues and customers and ensuring all business decisions are truly customer focussed. Under Steve’s stewardship, the Food business has begun to reduce prices, overhaul its own-brand products and has recently introduced a new look for its stores.
UK Retail Director for BP, Catherine Nunn, will be sharing her wealth of knowledge of operational and strategic retail roles having worked at BP for over 18 years. Catherine is accountable for all aspects of Operations, Trading and Assets for 330 retail sites, including 200 with BP and M&S forecourt store offerings. Much of Catherine’s career has involved European and global roles, providing her with a key understanding of forecourts across the world.
Nick Lloyd, Symonds Forecourts, will be unveiling his knowledge of the forecourt sector. Nick is Managing Director of Symonds Forecourts, where over the last 4 years he has worked with the team to push operating over £1m – an improvement of 150% – plus he has won Forecourt Trader of the Year and Grocer Gold for Best Independent UK Retailer.
Chief executive of Ipsos MORI, Ben Page is an expert on brand perception, leadership and people management. He has directed hundreds of surveys examining service delivery, customer care and communications. He has conducted polling for large corporate clients as well as Prime Ministers and Presidents from around the world.
Mike Watkins, Head of Retailer and Business Insight for Nielsen, is responsible for commercial development with food, non food and e commerce retailers. Mike has over 25 years’ experience in retailing and his view is that over the next 5 years we will see the biggest ever change in how we shop, which will challenge the traditional industry business models.
Lastly, Jill Livesey, Executive Director of him! Research and Consulting, will seek to uncover the depths of the sector, looking at how c-stores have changed over the years, how they are now embracing modern trends and how they are expected to evolve in the future. Jill has previously worked in both retail and manufacturing and is a huge supporter of the convenience channel.
Business journalist, Declan Curry, will be Chairing the event for the second time, and John Steele will be the day’s inspirational speaker.
ACS’ Summit 15 has incorporated many exciting new features to this year’s agenda. The convenience store industry’s key event of the year will now be split into three separate sections. ‘The Big Download’ will be bursting with key industry knowledge and insights, ‘The Master Plan’ will be an inspiring session designed to change the way retail is perceived, and lastly, ‘The Ideas Studio’ will be full of convenience store innovations from all over the world.
To book your place, visit http://www.acs.org.uk/events, or contact Sarah Johnson on 01252 515 001, or e-mail [email protected]
