The New York Summit Taskforce

• Mark BATENIC, IGA, USA
• Jerry BROWN, Unilever, USA
• Antonio COTO GUTIERREZ, Dia, Argentina
• Christian HAUB, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co. Inc., USA
• Lawrence HUTTER, Deloitte Consulting, USA
• Belinda YOUNGS, Sobeys, Canada

• Onsite programme

• Executive Summary

This year's Summit attracted 770 CEOs from 49 countries.
The question explored this year was: Growth & Sustainability – Building profit with responsibility

Many issues are coming to a head within our industry at the present time:

The threat to energy supplies, the global plight of farmers, aggressive supermarket pricing agendas, global sourcing, corporate social responsibility - and a confused consumer.

The backdrop is a global economy under stress in which growth is threatened.

Pressure on existing economic models is mounting for a number of reasons. These include agricultural inflation, the impact of bio-fuels on food prices, rising demand for new consumer goods and raw materials from the emerging economies, changes in the structure of corporate ownership, food safety scares, obesity concerns, and the concentration of power within the supply chain. In this context, consumers and food providers are forced to confront complex new realities about our industry. How can we manage the current economic climate to provide safe and inexpensive food for a growing world population? How can we ensure a fair deal for the future of our industry, our business partners and our customers alike? How can our industry drive growth and manage the green agenda?

• Onsite programme
• Summit Offical Website

• Executive Summary

This year's Summit attracted 840 CEOs from 50 countries.
The question explored this year was: Mapping the New Silk Road

As well as covering global themes for a global audience, the Shanghai Programme:

• Explained the Asian context and provided an understanding of the exponential changes that are taking place in this region and how they will impact the rest of the world
• Provided a detailed insight into the Chinese retail industry and current retail trends
• Allowed delegates to visit a wide variety of Shanghai stores
• Introduced top retail executives in the Asian and global markets
• Focused on how China is becoming a manufacturing centre for the world
• Witnessed China’s extraordinary and flexible production capacities
• Looked at the businesses of both Chinese and international Mapping The New Silk Road companies, within the food business and elsewhere
• Provided detailed knowledge about the Chinese economy
• Gave insight into Chinese culture
• Allowed delegates to understand the Chinese consumer
• Gave an exposure to an exclusive international network made up of the leaders of the global retail business

• Onsite programme
• Summit Offical Website

• Executive Summary
• Executive Summary - Chinese version

This year's Summit attracted 820 CEOs from 48 countries.
The question explored this year was: Flying High in the Face of Competition

We have entered the low-cost age.
Retailers and suppliers face intense competition, driven by discount channels and global sourcing.

Business is tough and relations are pressured.

Margin and pricing strategies are centre-stage.

The good news is that the quest for a competitive strategy is producing more innovation and better value for consumers.

Companies are responding with an array of initiatives from new formats and diversified services to private label and healthy eating ranges.

In the face of competition, many are learning to fly.

• Onsite programme
• Summit Offical Website

• PPS Picture
• Executive Summary

This year's Summit attracted 690 CEOs from 46 countries.

This question were explored in five key sessions:

A shifting centre of gravity
The centre of growth is shifting from the West to Central Europe and Asia. We need to accept and then integrate all of the changes this implies in order for our business to succeed. An exploration of the macroenvironment that is redefining today’s food business.

Reinventing formats for shoppers
There has been a fundamental shift in consumer behaviour: retailers are faced with smart shoppers who are increasingly drawn to discount formats. Case studies from around the world on finding the right format formula to combat hard discount.

Is technology really the future?
An assessment of what technology represents in competitive advantage, efficiency and retailer-supplier collaboration.

The knowledge shift: lessons to be learnt

From other businesses - Best-practice case studies on defining brands from across the consumer goods spectrum.

Leaders with courage - As the centre of growth moves east, the West must find a way to rebuild its business based on people, culture and technology. Inspiration from personalities who have pioneered new business models and woken up sleeping brands.

• Onsite programme
• Executive Summary

• PPS Picture

This year's Summit attracted 700 CEOs from 44 countries.

 Value was explored under the following topics:

The Price of Fair and Sustainable Trade
The average EU cow receives more in subsidies than the average sub-Saharan African lives on per day. This session had examined how trade can create value in the wider sense of prosperity.

Food Politics
This session considered value and values as our business tackles the diverse challenges of obesity and famine.

Tectonic Shifts in the Market Place
Today’s business environment is like a series of tectonic plates, all moving, but not always in the same direction. Retailer brands, discounter strategies and new forms of competition were examined. This session explored the changing definitions of consumer value.

Brand Italy
Brand Italy is powerful in its automatic association with food, coffee, wine and an entire spectrum of upmarket luxury brands across the fashion, design and motor industries. This session looked at brand value through case studies that encapsulate Italy's unique success as a brand and provides global/local learnings for the food business.

All Roads Lead to People
People are at the core of the retail business, but remain its most fragile asset. This session focused on maximising value to and from our people.

• Onsite programme
• Executive Summary

• PPS Picture

This year's Summit attracted 600 CEOs from 40 countries.

The 2003 World Food Business Summit enabled top food business executives to navigate their business course by providing penetrating insights on the following key topics:

Success in an Age of Scepticism
The future of governments, economies, businesses and individuals seem to hang by a thread in an unpredictable and increasingly global society. The credibility of the global market system that underpins our complex world is at stake.

Breaking the mould
Dramatically different companies, whose product innovations, business models and company cultures have met or exceeded the expectations of the 21 st century consumer.

Leaders at risk
Strategies that deliver operational effectiveness and profitability, responsibly, to the benefit of all stakeholders.

A day in the life of the contemporary consumer
Exceptional food and fashion companies, viewed through the lens of today’s increasingly sceptical, irrational and ever more demanding consumer. Different time, different place, different need.

Achieving sustainable success
New measures of success. Business, governments, private-public partnerships, monarchies and civil societies coming together to create a sustainable world.

• Onsite programme
• Executive Summary