26|Retail News|June 2013|www.retailnews.ie
Retail News|June 2013|www.retailnews.ie|27
Retail Ireland Conference
Retail Ireland Conference
Facing the Future with Confidence
Tonio Borg, EU Commissioner for Health & Consumers, is pictured (centre) with Retail Ireland Director, Stephen Lynam (left) and Chairman, Frank Gleeson (right).
Minster for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD addresses delegates at the Retail Ireland Annual Conference. Pictured at the Retail Ireland Conference in the Aviva Stadium are (l-r): Dr Maureen Gaffney, Psychologist; Margaret E. Ward, Conference Chair; and Sean Carlin, IBEC Retail Skillnet Manager.
had stabilised and was now poised for growth. The fundamentals are in place, he argued, but confidence has not yet returned to the economy. 85% of austerity has been delivered, O’Brien argued, and the Government now has choices. They can choose to support growth, he said, accruing more tax revenue through a growing economy rather than raising taxes. We have to “let the confidence genie out of the bottle, without tax increases,” he argued.
The inaugural Retail Ireland Annual Conference was a resounding success, with cautious optimism very much the order of the day. ‘INSPIRING The Consumer’ was the title of the inaugural Retail Ireland Annual Conference, held at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, on May 23. Chaired by journalist and broadcaster Margaret E. Ward, the half day event featured a wide range of speakers, including Tonio Borg, EU Commissioner for Health & Consumers; Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, Richard Bruton TD; and Danny McCoy, IBEC CEO. Welcoming delegates to the half-day event, Retail Ireland Director, Stephen Lynam called for action on rents, rates and energy costs, noting how “these are tough times to be a retailer, but great times to be your representative”. Sean Carlin, IBEC Retail Skillnet Manager, sponsor, and Gretta Nash Cadden from Brown Thomas, provided an enlightening presentation on how training can help employees to see
their role as a having a career in retail as opposed to simply a job in a shop. Poised For Growth IBEC’s head of economics and taxation, Fergal O’Brien, then provided an insightful and hopeful talk, where he noted how following an extremely traumatic period, Ireland’s economy
Flourishing Under Fire Keynote speaker, psychologist Maureen Gaffney, gave an entertaining presentation on ‘Flourishing Under Fire’, advising on how individuals and business teams can be at their best. She outlined the importance of first impressions and how hard it is to change them, while also offering practical advice on how we can become more optimistic in our outlook, which brings very real benefits to business performance. Mark Nolan, MD, Amárach Research, concluded the first session by focusing on ‘Future Trends’, particu-
IBEC CEO Danny McCoy argued that we have elongated our recession by “keeping down with the Joneses”.
larly with reference to online shopping. This coincided with the publication on the day of Retail Ireland’s online retailing survey, which showed that two thirds of retailers were preparing to improve their online offering to consumers. Nolan spoke of the need to see shoppers as people as opposed to simply statistics, and warned that “shoppers are not sympathetic to your plight” and you have no right to expect them to be. He described the growth of ‘showrooming’, whereby consumers test out products in-store before buying them on-line. There has been no recession in digital shopping, he warned, which continues to cannibalise other retail sectors. Irish shoppers spent €3.6 billion online in 2012, a figure which is expected to rise to €5.7 billion by 2016. “Online shopping is not a
threat,” he argued. “It is a call to action.” Call To Arms The second session began with a call to arms from IBEC CEO Danny McCoy, who argued that there is real potential for 5-6% growth in Ireland in money terms, but that we have elongated our recession by “keeping down with the Joneses”. We need to change the narrative, he argued, loosening the grip of price deflation and moving to an inflationary mindset. He also used his presentation to argue against the introduction of a legislative Code of Practice for the retail sector, arguing that the forthcoming voluntary EU Code of Practice would more than suffice. Minster for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD, began his presentation by extolling the benefits EU membership
has brought for Ireland in terms of raising standards, fostering enterprise and innovation. He described Ireland as in many ways a poster boy of having faced up to our economic problems. The challenge, he pointed out, is to move away from an economy built on debt and the construction sector and towards innovation and exports. He noted how the Government are “making real progress” on this, from renegotiating with the Troika to reforming wage setting mechanisms and introducing a €72 per week subsidy for employers to take people off the Dole, expressing his confidence in the route and reforms the Government is taking. “We are seeking to create an environment in which innovation can thrive,” the Minister stressed. Maintaining Consumer Trust The main address from European Commissioner for Health and Consumers, Tonio Borg, saw the Maltese Commissioner admitting that he came from a family of shopkeepers and thus had an affinity with the retail sector. He defined an inspired consumer as “someone who feels what they buy is safe, legitimate, high quality and sustainably produced, someone who takes full advantage of the single market,
thus contributing to the economy.” In a fascinating presentation, Commissioner Borg stressed the importance of consumer trust, citing the recent horsemeat controversy as evidence of the effects of losing that consumer trust: sales of frozen beef burgers are down by 40% in the UK and Ireland, he noted. New EU rules will, however, minimise risks and help to find fraud. When it comes to fraud, the penalty has to be proportionate to the illicit gain made, he argued. While calling for the harmonisation of rules across the EU, Commissioner Borg urged lawmakers not to throw legislation at micro problems. Retail Round-Table A Retailer Round-table followed, where the panel of Lulu O’Sullivan, Chief Executive of giftsdirect.com, Keith Harford, retail consultant from RTE television’s ‘Retail Therapy’, and Edel Clancy, Director of Communications and Corporate Affairs for the Musgrave Group, discussed a range of issues relevant to the sector. Edel Clancy, in particular, stressed that the importance of retailers grabbing the innovation agenda, providing customers with every retail channel they are looking for. Staying Motivated Finally, Retail Ireland Chairman and Topaz Retail Director, Frank Gleeson, ended proceedings by noting the challenges faced by retailers in recent years, with the retail sector shedding 25% of its turnover and in the region of 50,000 jobs. He talked about the ‘human capital agenda’, the importance of investing in people, and called for sensible regulation of the retail sector, noting how the proposed Irish Code of Practice “does not benefit the consumer, retailer or supplier”. There is, he insisted, a bright future for retail in Ireland, providing we stay positive and motivated.