ACS Study Tour, CBI Conference & Share of the Profits

ACS Copenhagen Study Tour

Last week I was invited to join the Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) study tour in Copenhagen, Denmark, one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world.

The tour brought together 75 key people from the UK’s retail industry and suppliers’, all looking to get inspired by new stores and concepts, which are being driven by innovative ideas in the European convenience sector.

[Left to right, next to the Little Mermaid bronze statue in Copenhagen, Salad toppers of frozen grasshoppers and mealworms, the Coop.DK and the Meny store]

On day one of the tour we visited several different convenience stores, dotted throughout the city, they included;

Circle K

Since the 1980’s Circle K has been the largest chain of company-owned (non-franchised) convenience stores in the United States.  In Europe, they are present in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, Poland, Ireland and the UK.

 

Meny

Meny (meaning “Menu”) is a Norwegian and Danish Supermarket chain owned by NorgesGruppend and Dagrofa. In 2015, over 100 Meny stores opened in Denmark.The brand operates so called ‘full service’ supermarkets which focus on offering a wide choice of fresh and high-quality products. Denmark Meny has over 5,000 employees.

 

Netto

Netto is a Danish discount supermarket, offering 1,800 different items and spot items that change on a weekly basis. Predominantly operating in Denmark, Germany, Poland and previously in Sweden and the UK,  as a stand-alone venture. The first Netto store opened in Godthabsvej on 1st April 1981. The chain has since expanded and today counts more than 500 stores across Denmark, making it the country’s largest grocery chain.

On day two we started our morning doing a walking tour around the city, which included a visit to a Co-op, Brugsen Hovedbanen. This co-op is situated inside the Copenhagen central station, with a large selection of easy meals, breads, fresh produce, meats and fish. This store is part of the Co-op, which is owned by 1.8 million Danes.

 

CBI conference

On Monday I attended the CBI conference in London, which included addresses by Boris Johnson, Jeremy Corbyn and Jo Swinson, who each set out how they would support businesses if they formed a Government following the general election on 12th December.

They clearly represent a wide variety of views and different levels of future government intervention which could have implications for some of our businesses.

All three made promises and it will be interesting to see which one gets the chance to deliver on those.

 

Share of the Profits

Starting today, Midcounties will be sending out our annual Share of the Profits payment.  Nearly a quarter of a million members will receive their Share of the Profits over the next few days with a pay-out value of over £1.2 million. The Share of the Profits, as well as being a welcome bonus for our members, will also help drive trade to all our businesses, particularly Food Retail during their critical Christmas trading period. The mailing also combines the Colleague Thank You voucher payment which this year has a total pay-out value of over £350,000. This is our way of saying thank you to you for all the hard work you have put in over the last year, so eligible colleagues please look out for your Colleague Dividend vouchers in the mailer.

 

 

Along with the share of profits we are also sending out the winter 2019 members magazine. Included in this special Fairness issue is a history of the Fairtrade logo launched 25 years ago, a fabulous range of Fairtrade recipes and a review of the new Fairphone 3. Members can also win a luxurious break for two in Fuerteventura and read an interview with Alistair about his new role as the chair of the travel association ABTA. For the digital version of the magazine we have produced extra content to encourage people to read the flipping book version online. We have filmed a range of the Fairtrade recipes being made by our Chipping Norton in-store chef Denyce and produced a special film presented by Chas Townley, who sits on our MEC, about the WW1 Roll of Honour. There is also the exclusive opportunity for members viewing the magazine online to win a new Fairphone 3 courtesy of the Phone Co-op.  

 

Fairtrade 25

Last month was the 25th anniversary of the Fairtrade logo and we used it to engage members, customers and communities about the importance of buying Fairtrade. To promote Fairtrade we created an integrated campaign encouraging people to make #1Swap and publicising our in-store events at Highworth and Bourton-on-the-Water. In addition we held sessions in schools and organised a ‘pay-as-you-feel’ Fairtrade meal at the United Reform Church in Shrewsbury. As a result, we produced 19 pieces of local media coverage across our trading area and worked with three ‘influencer bloggers’ to reach more people online (the bloggers were ‘Emma and 3, Sian Victoria and New Mummy’). This generated over 1000 reactions on social media and in total the campaign reached over a quarter of a million people who now know about our Fairtrade message, a fantastic result.

That’s all for my blog this week, if you do have any thoughts, don’t hesitate to let me know by signing in and commenting below.