FICR 2009 Home | C-Store Study Tours | Industry Dinner | Convenience Conference | London Eye Drinks | Forecourt Conference | Hotel Accommodation | Global Award | Order online

Insight/NACS launch International Convenience Retailer Award
International Convenience Retailer of the Year 2009

Vote now! Please select your winner from the retailers on the voting page. Voting will close at 2pm GMT on 11th September. To ensure voting is fair, registration is required.

Insight and NACS are delighted to announce the launch of a prestigious new award to recognise and celebrate the best convenience retail formats from around the world.

The International Convenience Retailer of the Year 2009 award will be presented on the evening of 15th September at the Gaucho Smithfield restaurant in London.

The award will be judged by an international panel of leading convenience retailing executives, jointly chaired by Fiona Briggs, editor of the Insight/NACS online newsletter, Global Convenience Store Focus; and Erin Pressley, editor, NACS magazine. In addition, readers of Global Convenience Store Focus will have an opportunity to vote for their favourite international convenience retailer online. Previous winners of international convenience retailer awards, sponsored by Insight and NACS, have included Tesco Express Environment Store and BWG (Spar Ireland) Eurospar format.

Launching the award, Insight Partner Dan Munford said: "Convenience retailing is one of the fastest growing and most dynamic sectors in the global grocery market. Insight and NACS work with and alongside some of the world’s leading convenience retail operators. They are driving the industry’s most innovative store formats and concepts. This new award for International Convenience Retailer 2009 will showcase and recognise their developments and achievements on an international stage."

In the UK, for example, the latest research from the IGD shows convenience is outpacing the growth of the UK grocery market overall and is forecast to be worth £39.7bn by 2014. In the last 12-month period it has risen by 6.1% to £29.1bn. The IGD’s new Evolution of Convenience Retailing report has identified seven convenience models, which are operating globally.

They include three traditional models:

• neighbourhood-style supermarkets and food-to-go outlets, which offer fresh food and meal solutions
• a foodservice model, pioneered by the leading forecourt operators in the US, offering a strong impulse and fast food offer
• a smaller convenience model, located in city centres and high footfall areas, targeting immediate needs

And four new models, created as changing consumer trends and new strategic alliances cause traditional segments to merge:

• Supermarkets on the forecourt
• Impulse crossing with foodservice
• Convenience and in-store dining
• Fresh and fast, ‘everyday’, ‘for now’ and ‘for later’

And, while mainstream grocery retailers are increasingly focusing on the forecourt and a new customer base, convenience is moving up the agenda for those that have not previously looked directly to target the sector, adds the IGD. Discounters, for instance, are leading the charge in this respect by moving into higher footfall, city centre locations and developing their convenience ranges.

It is against this dynamic backdrop that Insight and NACS are looking to find the best international convenience retailers. Many potential contenders for this top accolade have already been featured on the Insight/NACS online newsletter, Global Convenience Store Focus, since it launched in October 2008.

They include:

• Pick n Pay’s new Express format with BP in South Africa
• Carrefour City and Carrefour Contact
• Gazprom’s new forecourt and convenience store design in Russia
• Kwik Save, reborn in Spain
• Applegreen, Petrogas’s convenience forecourt format in Ireland and the UK
• Sainsbury’s new neighbourhood format in the UK
• Freshstop, Fruit & Veg City and Chevron’s forecourt joint venture in South Africa
• Fresh Market, a new premium convenience format launched by Zabka in Poland
• Topaz’s latest forecourt design in Ireland
• 7-Eleven’s innovations in Australia
• Waitrose’s new convenience store format in the UK
• Reitan’s 7-Eleven partnership with Shell in Scandinavia
• Petro-Canada’s Neighbours convenience format

For details on how to enter, please download PDF B. Convenience retailing is one of the fastest growing sectors around the world and is leading new format development.

Download PDF B (pdf)