CSNA welcomes visit by CEDT European retailers

The CSNA welcomed European retailers and gave them the opportunity to meet a number of CSNA members and explore their stores

The CSNA took the opportunity to provide a guided tour to a number of members' stores, where visitors were most impressed with the range of offerings available

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The Convenience Stores and Neswagents Association (CSNA) this past week welcomed a delegation of visitors from the European Federation of Tobacco Retailers (known as the CEDT), of which the CSNA is a member.

An organisation based in Brussels, the CEDT is funded entirely by retailers from eight countries in the European Union.

In Spain, France, Italy, Austria and Hungary, the CSNA points out that retailers are licenced to operate a monopoly of sales of tobacco products in a devised area and have varying degrees of restrictions on what they can or cannot offer for sale, how many outlets they can operate (in most cases it is only a single store) and their hours of opening.

While all of them sell Lottery products and many sell alcohol, the visiting retailers were very impressed with the range of offerings that Ireland’s forecourt/convenience sector retailers were able to provide to customers. According to the CSNA, Belgium is similar to Ireland while the Greek retailers are primarily kiosk-holders with exclusivity on a number of products.

Following a meeting, the CSNA took the opportunity to provide guided tours to a number of members’ stores.

The association thanked CSNA member Thomas Ennis who made himself available for almost an hour answering an array of questions from the delegates in his impressive Merrion Row shop.

The CSNA was also most appreciative to Emma George for offering the group the opportunity to visit the stunning shop situated at The Point, where once again the delegates were offered every opportunity to seek explanations on layout, design, technical specs, etc. The association also expressed a big “thank you” to Olga who displayed great level of knowledge of the sector.

The CSNA concluded the visit with a visit to the ever busy and impressive Applegreen forecourt on the Naas Road near Rathcoole, where site manager Andrieu was more than willing to provide his insights into a variety of site-specific questions.

“The Irish convenience sector can more than hold its own in any company throughout the world in terms of innovation, standards, marketing and merchandising and was able to prove it once again this week,” the CSNA stated.

The association added that it will continue to report on some of the works the CEDT collaborates upon, including EU legislation, DRS, other aspects of the Circular Economy and fiscal matters, in its upcoming newsletters.

For more information on the CEDT, click here.

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