Valora, Migrolino, McKinsey and European Retail Trends

Continental and Central Europe is one of the most important locations for convenience innovation. In this specially extended episode of Shop Talk LIVE, our host Dan Munford is joined by German-speaking market expert Christian Warning, Owner of The Retail Marketeers and NACS Relationship Partner, DACH.

Guest are Daniel Läubli, Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company, Roger Vogt, CEO Retail, Valora Group and Sebastian Becker, Member of the Management Board at Migrolino.

Daniel Läubli leads McKinsey & Company’s food retail practice globally and in the first part of the episode updated us on the latest trend research highlighting the impact of inflation, the growth of healthy, sustainable and ultra-fresh products and the shift to for now. He also made interesting points on localization, digitalization, automation, e-com and personalisation of promotions and loyalty.

Roger Vogt’s presentation provides an overview of Valora, a particular focus on the Avec brand and also a background on FEMSA. FEMSA and Valora recently joined forces providing a strong foundation to jointly develop the European market in convenience stores and food service. Valora is a leading foodvenience provider with more than 2,700 stores in high traffic locations in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It operates 13 different brands including Avec and Backwerk. The business became part of FEMSA on 7th October, 2022. FEMSA is a leading retail and beverage company with total sales of more than US$27 Billion. With OXXO, FEMSA operates the largest convenience store chain in Mexico and Latin America with more than 20,000 stores.

Sebastian Becker’s presentation provides an overview of the exciting innovation journey Migrolino has been on over recent years. Migrolino serves more 600 Convenience stores in the Swiss retail market, 389 Stores under its Franchise Concepts migrolino, mio and gooods with Shell, SOCAR and Piccadilly and 300 Partner Stores through its wholesale division. Migrolino has achieved market leadership in the Swiss Convenience Retail with sales exceeding >1.0 Billion CHF and the provision of more than >4.000 workplaces.