Spar Ireland hosts delegation of Spar International retail directors representing 13,000 stores
Two-day 'look and learn' technology showcase tour features high-level interactive meetings with a variety of the world’s leading technology companies.
Print21 May 2019
Spar International, the world’s largest voluntary food retail chain, has completed a comprehensive educational tour to Ireland aimed at connecting directly into Ireland’s global technology innovation hub to inspire its next generation retail technologies.
Dublin was selected as the host country for the study tour on the basis that it is now widely regarded as the primary hub for technology innovation in Europe with 16 of the world’s top software companies based in Ireland, including Microsoft, along with an increasingly strong base of fast growing indigenous technology companies that boast pioneering retail solutions.
The two-day look and learn tour, which was hosted by BWG Foods, owner of Spar Ireland, was attended by retail directors from countries including Austria, Spain, Hungary, Russia and the UK.
The tour featured a number of high-level interactive meetings with a variety of the world’s leading technology companies in their respective fields including Microsoft, Intel, Checkpoint, Google, IBM, NCR, and Ireland’s own Pointy. Each company used the opportunity to showcase the latest technology solutions that will revolutionise how stores operate and how consumers shop in the near future.
“We’ve long believed Ireland to be at the very forefront of retail technology globally,” said Chris Donnelly, IT director, BWG Foods “and this scouting mission by one of the world’s leading retail groups illustrates this.
“Our unique concentration of the world’s largest tech companies,” Donnelly added, “in addition to a bustling indigenous sector that is creating some of the most awe inspiring next generation retail solutions, has helped push Ireland’s retail sector, and convenience in particular, to the forefront of innovation globally.”
The tour also visited Eurospar Barrow Street in the heart of the Silicon Docks where some of the world’s latest retail innovations have been put into practice, and DCU’s Alpha Campus and Talent Garden where select technology start-ups used the opportunity to pitch their latest innovations to the cohort of retail directors.
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