"I am eagerly anticipating Walter Zimmermann's return presentation," said Fran Duskiewicz, senior executive vice president of Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppers Inc., Canastota, N.Y., and State of the Industry Summit chairman. "He was so on target last year that you have to hear [image-nocss] his take on what 2009 will hold in store."
Duskiewicz said it was the addition of high-level economic speakers like Zimmermann, chief technical analyst for United Energy, a new ways of cutting the data that reinvigorated the SOI Summit a few years ago.
"When the summit began focusing on top-quartile-performance metrics, I became re-engaged," said Duskiewicz. "Last year, I took back 'gross margin dollars per payroll dollars' as a very worthwhile labor-budgeting metric, and it paid off for us."
So once the data is crunched and the discussions complete, are there opportunities during this economic downturn? And what can retailers do to position themselves for opportunity?
"Aside from Big Oil, this is an industry of entrepreneurs who can find opportunities in good times and bad," said Duskiewicz. "I think that painting the entire country with a broad downturn brush is not wise. There are plenty of places that did not participate in boom times, so they are not busted right now; however, the bifurcation of the industry we discussed at last year's State of the Industry Summit is creating opportunities for well-heeled companies with good balance sheets. There are good locations being vacated by the majors and fire sales on sites with great potential owned by single owners who can't keep up. If you can find the financing, you can pick up some great sites. And as a bonus opportunity, many single-site owners will 'hold paper' and bypass the banks."
These types of insights and many others are among the kind shared in droves during the NACS State of the Industry Summit in partnership with CSP. The April 6-8 Summit will feature a comprehensive review of the 2008 NACS State of the Industry data, the latest consumer insights, category metrics and analysis provided by several leading research and data organizations. The Summit takes place at the InterContinental Chicago O'Hare Hotel.
If you want to take advantage of the opportunities you will uncover at this year's Summit, you need to act fast. The deadline for hotel reservations at the Summit rate is this Friday, March 20.Click hereto reserve your room.
The Summit registration deadline of March 27 is also rapidly approaching. Registration is free for all NACS Retailer Members.Click hereto register. Suppliers may register by clicking here.
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