RETAILING IN EUROPE: The challenge ahead

Abstract

The Financial Times had a full house for their recent conference on Retailing in Europe. Chaired by Lady Hall, Fellow of Somerville College and an RDM Advisory Board member, and Mr. James Gulliver of Oriel Foods, the conference examined a number of issues of relevance to retailers with a European outlook. Some of the more recent newcomers on the retail scene will continue to develop: specialist discounters will expand fast in their own trades, and more conventional retailers will adopt forms of discount trading. Voluntary groups, already well‐established on the continent, will present UK voluntary groups with opportunities for international marketing. The march of the large‐scale units — hypermarkets or superstores, call them what you will — will certainly not be halted, but in Lady Hall's view it is probably the larger supermarket and multiple groups who will be directly affected by this development rather than the smaller independents. Finally Dr James Jefferys is of the opinion that the continent offers more opportunity for trying out new ideas than the UK. Prospects of further change, he thinks, are very strong indeed.