Big Turnout for Hamilton Island Convention

October saw UCB members and suppliers on Hamilton Island for two days of swapping ideas, networking plus golf and socialising. This, the ninth annual conference for the independent buying group, was deemed a success despite torrential Queensland rain.

Around 300 UCB members and staff attended, along with 125 supplier representatives.
“I loved the conference because I learned so much,” said Terry Makhlouf, who owns several sites including fast&ezy Helensburg on Sydney’s southern outskirts.

“You learn, not just from the guest speakers, but also by talking to other retailers and the suppliers too. I’ve come away with a lot of knowledge and ideas, and some of the ideas I’m already putting into practice. You can never know it all.”

Ideas to go

UCB CEO Reg Johnston told his audience that the whole idea was for them to find ideas that they could take away and use to build the future of their business, although he said their results are already impressive.

The figures show that the 1151 UCB member stores turn over more than $1.4 billion every year and perform better than the industry average in every category. UCB members, he said, serve 20 per cent of the Australian population every week, but there’s always room to be bigger and better.

“This is our ninth conference and we’ve always made it a point to use the conference to celebrate the relationship between our members and our suppliers,” said Mr Johnston.

“It’s great for members to talk to each other, as well as to the suppliers. And it works for the suppliers too because they can talk directly to their customers. It is all about being focused on retailing and giving members unbiased information and support.”

Mr Johnston said the big challenge with organising a conference is getting the balance right, between the business and the social, but he thinks UCB now ticks all the boxes with just the right amount of information – and a lot of socialising. This year’s conference involved golf, a cruise and a welcome BBQ dinner followed by a day of business – two guest speakers and the trade show – before the farewell dinner.

“It is tricky to find the balance, but because a lot of our members are single store operators we believe it’s important for them to have the time to talk to other members – and to the suppliers – in a relaxed way because building relationships and having informal discussions gives them a lot to take back to their own sites.

“But it’s also important to have a good speaker or two, but not so many that people get bored – and they must be entertaining.”

As a case in point, psychologist and customer service expert, Martin Grunstein, spoke on getting customer service right. Mr Johnston said that’s important for any retailer, but he believes Grunstein’s message would stay with the members because it was amusing.

Value the independent retailers

After the speeches came the trade show with some 40 companies participating. Parmalat was one of the main supporters of the conference and Alex Khoury, National Account Manager, P&C, said that level of support will continue.

“As a supplier, the UCB conference is a great opportunity to get out of the office, and spend time with independent retailers in a relaxed, informal way.

“The independents are important to us, and we want them to know it – and that’s why we also provide some really good prizes (a Harley Davidson and a large flat-screen TV). It costs us a lot of money but we do reap the benefits.

“The conference lets us get to know the retailers, but it’s also a way of giving something back to them. You can’t put a price on building a relationship or goodwill but it does pay off, so we find it very satisfying to be involved on both a personal and a business level and we will continue to do it.”

During the conference, there was a special presentation just to the fast&ezy retailers, but according to Mr Johnston, the message is quickly getting out that fast&ezy is the one to be part of – and the one to beat.

“UCB’s retail brand for the future is already the fastest growing brand in P&C and that’s because it is focused on delivering to our members the best retailing offer we can develop.

“We take the best ideas from around the world and distil these ideas into the right offer for each member’s local market, which is why fast&ezy is the right retail offer for retailers wanting to maximise their sales and profitability.”

UCB Awards

During dinner on the last night, the annual UCB Awards were announced, as voted by the members. And the winners are:
• Representative of the Year: Jason Natera, Mars (collected by Sam Shanks).
• New Product of the Year: Streets Magnum Gold (collected by Kerry Ginsberg).
• Best Trade Display (at the show): Parmalat (collected by Alex Khoury).
• (There was also a $500 prize for the member who correctly guessed which stand would win: Parmalat was the stand, and Jeremy Clark of Scott Petroleum was the first correct entry drawn.)
• Supplier of the Year: Mars (collected by Sam Shanks).