The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) successfully hosted its annual summit last week at Crown Melbourne.
Connect 25, which saw a record attendance of 650 delegates descend on Melbourne, provided the opportunity to celebrate and showcase the very best within the P&C industry for both retailers and suppliers, while providing opportunities to learn from experts in their field.
Theo Foukkare, CEO of AACS, kicked things off by discussing AACS’ goals for the coming year, which include a focus on retail safety, tobacco and vaping laws, alcohol, the sugar tax, ESG, and merchant fees.
Brett Barclay, Director at Convenience Measures Australia (CMA), then launched the AACS 2024 State of Industry Report, exclusively sponsored by CCEP, which showed -1.2 per cent value growth and a -1.7 per cent drop in unit sales with total sales value of $10.28 billion.
The Peter Jowett Award winners, Emily Tipping from Suntory Oceania and Edward Ratcliffe from 7-Eleven, then delivered their presentations on the topic – what can be done now to future proof convenience to enable the industry to thrive?
Ashley Fell, Director of Advisory at McCrindle Research, looked at what the Australian retail industry could look like in 2030, examining trends and how the world around us is being shaped by not only current consumers, but emerging ones.
Nic Kaliszewski and Dan Baker from Accenture then spoke about how AI is impacting the channel, providing practical examples that retailers and suppliers to learn from and potentially implement in their own stores and brands.
Foukkare then moderated a chat with Kyle Faulconer, CEO of PepsiCo ANZ and Fiona Hayes, CEO and Managing Director of 7-Eleven Australia, which offered an insightful discussion into how two of the biggest players in the industry operate, covering topics from industry trends to technology to management.
Finally, keynote speaker Sterling Hawkins delivered a rousing and inspirational presentation encouraging the audience to break through barriers holding them back and achieve their goals – No Matter What.
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Well done to Theo and everyone involved in putting this amazing event together.
best ever in my opinion.
And a massive congratulations to all the deserving winners this year.
well done to everyone. ????