The 2020 NACS Convenience Summit Europe will be held June 2-4 in Berlin, Germany, a thriving city where convenience and retail leaders can explore innovation and vertical retailing in a dynamic retail environment. “No other convenience industry event brings together retailers from Europe and across the globe in such an intimate and open setting,” said Mark Wohltmann, director of NACS Europe.
After more than two decades of hosting a joint event in London, plus intimate store tours in an additional city, the NACS event will shift to a single rotating location beginning in 2020. The move will allow attendees to immerse themselves in a different city’s retail landscape each year, gain new ideas and perspectives from European and global speakers, and build strategic relationships with leading global retailers.
Why Berlin? Berlin has a vast selection of shops that meet on-the-go shopper needs, from supermarkets to corner convenience stores (Spätis) to beverage markets. Bio Company operates a self-service convenience store in Kreuzberg, where customers from nearby offices can quickly and easily stock up on healthy and organic foods. And traditional petrol retailers such as Aral, Shell, Orlen and Total have focused more on the convenience and prepared food categories of their business, adding more fresh food-to-go to satisfy busy commuters and shoppers alike; they look to the Berlin market for their latest global or regional flagship projects. Elsewhere, High Street shoppers can find a new convenience idea interpreted at Original Unverpackt, a German food retailer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, which is one of the first supermarkets without disposable packaging. The retailer triggered a worldwide movement and introduced the zero-waste lifestyle in Germany.
The Berlin retail market also offers great examples of hard discounters such as Aldi and Lidl, which in recent years have initiated aggressive growth strategies in the United States, France and the United Kingdom (attendees will be able to see Aldi’s latest supermarket format). REWE Group also is influential in German retail and the winner of the 2017 NACS Insight Convenience Retail Sustainability Award for its leadership in developing and implementing sustainable strategies.
The 2020 event format will continue to deliver thought-provoking presentations and expert-guided retail tours that offer value to European retailers and also will continue to feature the NACS European Convenience Retail Awards Gala and Dinner, recognizing outstanding achievements in the European retail community.
To learn more about the 2020 event and be alerted when registration is open, visit www.conveniencesummit.com.