GFK Custom Research Baltic

Retail market in CEE Europe: Penetrative changes go on

Retail sector in CEE Europe is going through the new development stage typical of the following main trends:

1) Consolidation of company/corporation structures
The market keeps concentrating; big players are becoming even bigger. Some retail chains have already left the region, and the market scene is prevailed by companies with ambitions to create a dominant position. At the same time there are however new competitors coming - above all the specialists (non-food), convenience stores and last but not least the key discounter Aldi.

2) Radical changes on demand side
The average purchasing power is growing fast, while shopping behaviour of individual customer segments is getting vastly differentiated. Customers take over the control, and become more and more demanding. They know what they want, and are ware of the fact that the highly competitive market must deliver it.

3) Changes of regulatory framework
Many reforms are in progress in the Czech Republic and other post communist countries that have an important influence on businesses. Many significant changes take place also on the level of European union. Revision of key laws or transformation of tax conditions often occurs without the necessary dialogue between the government and commercial sphere.

These basic evolution tendencies will be discussed during the 14^th year of the traditional CEE retail related conference that will under the brand name Retail Summit 2008 take place on February 5-6 2008 in the congress centre of TOP Hotel in Prague. The place of the event enables easy accommodation and communication of a great number of delegates - the organizers expect that similarly to previous years we can expect nearly 1000 participants.

The scheme of Retail Summit 2008 fully reflects the abovementioned CEE retail market development tendencies. The key speaker will be Alain Caparros, Chairman of the board in REWE Group that is one of the main parties in consolidation of European retail sector and plays an important role also in the Czech Republic (see the latest acquisition of Delvita and expansion of chains Billa and Penny Market). The growing market concentration as a crucial challenge for suppliers and smaller retail companies will become o topic of many other speeches and discussion workshops. With a great interest we also expect the contribution of the Co-operative Group UK Chairman who will introduce the strategy of COOP prepared for one of the most concentrated and competitive markets all over the world.

Customers and trends in demand will be given also enough attention. Ondrej Tomas, Managing Director in GfK Prague will come with the introductory speech introducing trends of Central European consumer market in the global context. Regard to customers and understanding of their behaviour will be in the centre many other program slots, both within the first conference day ( e.g. 2 discussion sessions focused on Future of food and non-food retailing in CEE), and also during of practical workshops on the second day (such as Retail & shoppers or Retail & Brands).

Last but not least Retail Summit 2008 will create a space for the required dialogue between retailers and government. Novelty of this year is a big plenary discussion „ Retail and government" in the opening part of the conference. The Czech Prime minister Mirek Topolánek, key ministers of the Czech government and parliament deputies had agreed to come and take part in the discussion together with retailers represented by Feargal Quinn, the legendary Irish entrepreneur and current president of EuroCommerce, and leading experts from the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism.

News from preparations of Retail Summit will be continuously published at www.retail21.cz/summit.  Provided you are interested in active participation or promotion within the summit, contact please the conference secretariat konference@incoma.cz or call +420 252 217 521.