RN Spar Ireland

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18|Retail News|June 2013|www.retailnews.ie

Retail News|June 2013|www.retailnews.ie|19

International SPAR Congress

International SPAR Congress

Pictured are (l-r): Leo Crawford, President, SPAR International, Dr Gordon Campbell, Managing Director, SPAR International; and Willie O’Byrne, MD of SPAR Ireland.

talk about where our failures have been so we don’t make those mistakes again.”

SPAR Celebrates in Killarney The 58th International SPAR Congress took place in Killarney in May, as SPAR Ireland celebrated 50 years of SPAR in Ireland.

SPAR Ireland celebrated the 50th anniversary since the first SPAR store opened in Ireland by hosting the 58th International SPAR Congress in May. Following a number of store visits around Dublin, delegates were transported to the Europe Hotel, overlooking the lakes of Killarney for two days of presentations and discussions. Opening the Congress, Leo Crawford, President, SPAR International, welcomed delegates to Killarney. “Despite the fact that we’ve had the worst recession in living memory in Ireland, I think you can see that SPAR Ireland is working very hard to innovate and protect our

business,” he revealed. Describing SPAR Ireland as a great example of how SPAR International works, he described how the partnership with SPAR International has helped SPAR Ireland to develop a “competitive advantage”. “What is happening in Ireland represents the ethos of what SPAR International is all about,” he said. “We have been able to use the expertise from other countries, from SPAR International and in particular, our use of private label has been a great weapon for us in defending our market position in Ireland.” Crawford outlined the effects of the recession on consumer confi-

dence throughout Ireland and across Europe. “Consumer spending, in many countries, is remaining flat or in decline,” he said. “Despite this unfavourable environment, we can reveal outstanding figures for SPAR world retail sales, which grew in 2012 by 2.7% to almost €32 billion, which is a fantastic achievement for our organisation.” See separate panel on SPAR International Results on page 20. Finally, Crawford described the SPAR Congress as a “unique opportunity to share our successes and to

Mastering A New Reality Professor Stéphane Garelli from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, provided the keynote address on ‘Mastering a New Reality: a Competitiveness Outlook for 2013 and Beyond’. Having spoken at SPAR’s 2008 Congress, Professor Garelli provided a timely update on his previous presentation, with a fascinating examination of the global economy and where it might go from here. “There is no doubt that the world as we knew it is broken down,” he revealed. “The key issue today is to define what is the new normal.” He discussed the debt in the OECD region, describing it as “disquieting, because we are playing with money as if it had no value.” Companies, he said, are still performing very well. “We are dealing with an incredible pace of innovation,” he said, highlighting the growth of companies like Google, Facebook etc. He provided a whirlwind trip around the world, predicting economic growth rates or lack thereof across Europe, the US, South America, Asia etc. “I think the world economy today is

Professor Stéphane Garelli from IMD, Lausanne, Switzerland, provided the keynote address on ‘Mastering a New Reality: a Competitiveness Outlook for 2013 and Beyond’.

in a very difficult situation and it is going to be some time before we get out of this, at least in Europe,” he warned. Our “debt mountain” will be with us for some time, he noted. He pointed to Europe’s Central Bank as a problem, because it doesn’t operate like, for example, the US Central Bank. The Austerity Conundrum Professor Garelli went on to discuss taxation systems, the banking situation, the legislative environment, and asked “Can austerity work?” After five years of austerity measures, debt has increased everywhere “because GDP has been falling faster than debt, so the ratio has increased”. He predicted that “we are going to revise austerity programmes very

quickly, at least in Europe.” Looking at growing economies, he predicted the “globalisation of national champions… One of the biggest revolutions in the world economy today is the explosion of new brands.” There are now over 1,000 firms from emerging economies with revenues of $1 billion: “We have a reshuffle of the world economy and new names, new brands are the name of the game.” He spoke in detail about different economies, from emerging markets, which are a “first buy economy”, where consumers are purchasing items like mobile phones etc for the first time, compared to an economy of replacement (US, Europe, Japan), where the consumer can stop for a full year without buying non-essential goods and not


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