The Australian Association of Convenience Stores (AACS) has hosted its Mid Year State of Industry webinar, featuring presentations from AACS, IRI and NACS USA.
The webinar attracted more than 300 registrations and provided an update on the state of play in the convenience channel in Australia and abroad.
Theo Foukkare, CEO, AACS, hosted the event and introduced the three keynote speakers, including Brett Barclay, Director, CMA & AACS Treasurer; Daniel Bone, Insights Director, IRI; and Leroy Kelsey, Director Research, NACS.
During the webinar, Barclay presented the State of the Industry Mid Year Update, which shows that the convenience channel has experienced 7.9 per cent growth YTD in 2021.
Barclay also highlighted some categories that have been seeing an incredible growth rate within the channel, including Beverages, Foodservice, Confectionery, and Snackfoods.
Foukkare then introduced Daniel Bone from IRI who provided an overview of the grocery channel and changing consumer patterns. Bone highlighted that retailers must be prepared for idiosyncratic demand with fluctuations in mobility leading to variations in category demand. He also touched on the growth in e-commerce and the need for retailers to have an omnichannel approach.
Finally, Leroy Kelsey shared insights from the United States – a channel that is somewhat ahead of us in the challenge against COVID.
“We would have loved to be in person where we can. But obviously, it’s a very challenging time for us here in Australia,” said Foukkare.
“We hope that you find these sessions informative, provide you with insights, and are able to help you navigate through the balance of this year and look forward to 2022.
“We want to say a special thank you to Brett Barclay and the team at CMA for putting together our State of Industry Report both the full year and the half year. And likewise, we wanted to say thank you to Coca-Cola Europacific Partners for their sponsorship of our State of Industry reports.”
“This is a very valuable tool that we spend a lot of time, energy and resources on to keep our members as informed as we can.”
C&I will provide further insights from today’s presentations in the next issue of Convenience & Impulse Retailing magazine.