EG Group – global update
EG Group Commerical Director IIyas Munshi joins Shop Talk LIVE host Dan Munford for a fascinating business strategy update on EG’s journey so far. A record number of attendees from 35 countries registered to attend the event.
NACS member and former NACS European Leaders of the Year EG Group are in 10 international markets and have a network of over 6,000 sites that they own and operate. Brands are an inherent part of the company’s DNA and EG work with over sixty of them. EG’s big focus is “making sure the offer is relevant to the consumer” and differentiated across each market.
Discussion began by touching on recent developments and learnings across EG’s US, Australian, German, Italian, French, Dutch, Benelux and UK markets. It was particularly noteworthy to see how successful EG has been in bringing the right brands to the right spaces” in each of these markets and how the business has adapted to each opportunity.
“There is a massive demand from the consumer to create destinations which allow multiple missions to be satisfied … the day parts are also very important and when you are looking at the line-up of brands, they’ve got to be complementary. And the other dynamic which is very important is the pocket of the customer, you’ve got to have the value proposition as well as a premium offer as well.”
EG Group also talked about the shift to drive thru. Outside the US EG is Starbuck’s largest drive thru operator and the business has been the catalyst for much joint innovation with foodservice partners in this space. This includes recent plans with Leon, to help make its ‘naturally fast food’ more accessible, which will extend well beyond its original metropolitan London heartland.
Shopworks’ Managing Director Craig Phillipson and NCR Corporation’s Corporate Vice President EMEA Retail Neil Sutton also joined the conversation, reflecting together on the tectonic shifts in convenience and supermarket retail. We discussed how retailers work with technology partners to reduce ‘mission conflicts” and different points of friction to further improve and support the shopping experience? How do we make it easier and do it at scale?
In the broader discussion Craig Phillipson asked IIyas whether he felt championing other people’s brands worked better than developing their own in-house brands? For his part, commenting as the strategic tech partner of EG Group, Neil Sutton praised EG Group for its pace of development and dynamism in the global market.
Given that the UK’s CMA process has now concluded IIyas was also in a position to share with us some of the opportunities around the recent acquisition of the Asda business by EG Group’s shareholders. He explained how the Asda on the Move roll-out was now accelerating and what the learnings are so far.
He also mentioned the big box foodservice opportunities which were now becoming apparent in the UK market and the advantage EG Group has in terms of leveraging its existing foodservice brand partners here, plus the economies of scale available on logistics and fuel purchasing.
Global Convenience Store Focus would like to thank NCR, Shopworks, Invenco & Bona Design Lab for their continued support of Shop Talk LIVE.
