Adam Smith Conferences would like to thank all participants – speakers, sponsors and delegates – for contributing to the great success of Adam Smith Conferences’ 7th Russian Retail Forum

Once again, the Adam Smith RUSSIAN RETAIL FORUM underlined its status as the premier gathering of senior industry professionals in Russia. Close to 300 attendees took part over the 4 days of the Forum, where all the burning industry issues were discussed.

As always, the retail community particularly appreciated the opportunity to hear first hand from the 100-strong speaker faculty, which featured senior executives from such admired companies as:

Billa Russia* Castorama RUS * Dikaya Orhideya * Dixy Group * Euroset * Home Centre* Kopeyka * Krasny Kub * Lenta * METRO Cash&Carry Russia * MIR Company * Mosmart * Pharmacy Chain 36.6 * Polaris * Rigla * Spar Russia * Starik Hottabych * Svyaznoy * The Seventh Continent * Technosila * Tesco PLC * Top Kniga * Vester * Victoria Group of Companies * White Wind - DIGITAL * X5 Retail Group , and  many others...

This year, we offered two optional PRE-CONFERENCE FOCUS DAYS, which provided interesting insights into two of the key topics which attendees had requested more detailed information on:

31st March 2008 - TRANSPORT AND LOGISTICS SUMMIT: Improving cost-efficiency and supply chain effectiveness

31st March 2008 - REGIONAL RETAIL SUMMIT: Tapping the potential of large, medium, and small towns

The MAIN CONFERENCE was held on: 1st, 2nd and 3rd April 2008.
On Day 1, Tuesday 1st of April, the Forum started with an opening plenary session. This session was focused on presenting best practices of both Russian and multinational players, evaluating the attractiveness of the sector for investors, analysing the most effective regional development models and illustrating retailers’ expansion strategies via the development of new formats.

The session was followed by a SPECIAL GUEST PRESENTATION: “Globalization of the Retail Industry: What will be the future face of European Retail “by David Reid, Non-Executive Chairman, TESCO PLC” and a SPECIAL KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: “Russian Retail 2008 - what comes next?” by Lev Khasis, Chief Executive Officer, Chairman of the Management Board, X5 RETAIL GROUP N.V.  

The afternoon featured a SPECIAL INTERACTIVE SESSION on “Retail Trade and Government Regulation” which was extremely well-received by the Forum delegates. This session was moderated by Lev Khasis, CEO and Chairman of the Management Board, X5 Retail Group N.V, and featured Pavel Volkov, Head of Department at the Ministry for Economic Development and Trade, Timofey Nizhegorodsev, Head of Department at the Federal Antimonopoly Service of the Russian Federation and Nikolay Vlasenko, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Victoria Group of Companies (Picture 6)

The evening parallel streams were designed to offer attendees the chance to tackle their most pressing challenges in smaller, more focused groups of like-minded professionals from different retail segments such as: Grocery Retail & Supermarkets; Clothes, Shoes and Sportswear; DIY; Cosmetics, Perfumes and Pharmaceutical Products.

On Day 2, Wednesday 2nd April the agenda included two morning sessions on topics that delegates mentioned as of particular interest to them. The Session on “Building a customer-centric strategy” discussed how to inspire customer loyalty via effective marketing campaigns and strong retail brands. The Session on “Achieving store operations excellence” presented best practices for managing profit losses by addressing the problem of shrinkage.

In the afternoon we offered delegates a Practical MASTER-CLASS on “Category Management – an integrated approach to assortment management” The session was led by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants.

Day 3, Thursday 3rd April. The last day of the Forum programme commenced with a plenary session on facilities and real estate management, which was followed by an in-depth session on Financing the Retail Sector.  To round off this year’s Forum, we discussed one of the burning questions in the sector – how to effectively manage human resources in Russian retail.

We look forward to informing you very soon about the preparations for Adam Smith Confernces’ Russian Retail Forum – 2009. For all enquiries regarding the event, including your preferences regarding the dates and venue, please write to Jane Gelfand at JaneG@adamsmithconferences.com.

Once again, particular thanks go to the sponsors of the conference for making it all possible! Premier Sponsor: Ernst & Young; Lead Sponsor: Renaissance Capital; Regional Focus Day Sponsor: PricewaterhouseCoopers; Drinks sponsor:  Coca-Cola; Sponsors: Nutricia, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants and Cylande