Category Archives: event

Anuga, the Fair

Anuga, the world´s leading food fair for the retail trade and the food service and catering market, will take place in Cologne (Germany) from next October 8 to 12. My scheduled attendance has been cancelled because I have been urgently required to fly to Dubai to discuss new DESITA and ECOFFEE projects.  As I wrote to all those who contacted me privately to set up meetings at Anuga, I will be more than happy to meet you during the upcoming events, just contact me at norman|at|ecoffee.it

Anuga this year this fair is expected to be very interesting not only for the many – 6.500- exhibitors but for the collateral events that will take place during the 4 days. I am particularly interested in the Wellfood Forum – showcasing the latest trends and the newest developments from all over the world in the areas of Wellfood and Functional Food – and the Fully Organic Special Show.

Organic foods will be expertly presented for the fourth time since Anuga 2003, in cooperation with the editors of bioPress. In addition to the approximately 1,600 exhibitors offering organic products and the more than 300 exhibitors of exclusively organic products in the Anuga Organic hall, visitors will also find more than 2,000 organic products for the food retail trade concentrated in the “Fully Organic” special show.

“Fully Organic” is now becoming the future agenda of food retail traders. And nothing reflects the latest developments in the organic product range of the retail food trade as clearly as the special show at Anuga Organic.

I will follow the Anuga Fair via web, but feel free to comment, send updates and news regarding the show posting comments on this post. Thank you!

Stockholm hosting the upcoming FCSI Europe–Africa–Middle East Conference

Next September, from 16th to 18th, 2011 Stockholm, the very first Green Capital  will host the FCSI Europe–Africa–Middle East Conference.

Stockholm has been chosen by FCSI for its long-term target green policy, set to make the Swedish capital a fossil fuel free city by 2050.
The Conference speakers are highly recommended and the opening keynote speaker has been awarded speaker of the year 2009.
The program will be of course focused on the relation between sustainability and the Food industry, dealing with important subjects such as “Water and Waste. About water footprints and solutions to global water crisis. Solutions to the lack of sanitation”. Attendees will also have the chance to participate to interesting workshops such as “Food for thought on climate change: Saving our planet one carbon bite at a time!” or “ Why should a SPA be “green”.

Unfortunately, because of previously planned meetings, I will not be able to attend the Conference but I am sure it will be a great successful event and I wish to our FCSI Italia President Mr. Luciano Cattaneo a nice, enjoyable and profitable journey- feedbacks and updates about the Congress are welcomed!.

I also would like to remind all the FCSI members visiting the Milan HOST exhibition (October 21st – 25th ) that FCSI Italia will welcome all of you at Stand A03-C02 – Hall6.

Upcoming Events: our agenda

Here’s a list of all the leading events that we will follow in the next months.

8th-11th September, 2011: Sana, Bologna IT.
15th-17th September, 2011: FCSI FAME Conference, Stockholm SW
8th -12th October 2011: Anuga, Cologne D
16th – 18th October 2011: Qatar International Environment Protection, Doha
17th-19th October 2011:  Green Middle East, Sharjah, UAE
21th -25 October 2011: Host Milan, IT
4th-7th November, 2011: Salone Franchising Milano, Milan IT
9th-12th November, 2011: Ecomondo, Rimini IT
16th – 18th Nomber: Mapic, Cannes FR
22nd-24th November: Diyafa, Qatar
24th November, 2011: Green Awards, London UK
5th-7th December: World Green Tourism, Abu Dhabi

Meeting you will be a great pleasure: just sent me an email norman(at)ecoffee(dot)it to synch our agendas.

Amazing meeting with the “Green Sheikh”

It was a nice February morning in Dubai when my attention was captured by an article published on BuildGreen magazine. It was about Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Ali Al-Nuaimi , member of the ruling Royal Family of Ajman, UAE. I was stroked by the words of Sheikh Abdul Aziz, also known worldwide as the Green Sheikh, who choose to use his influence and connections to create a better world through faith, charity and sustainability.

I said to myself: “This is a man I absolutely have to know”. And thanks to his openness, this happened at the end of May.

He agreed to meet me in a three-day long meeting in Ajman, suggesting me where to stay and setting up a flexible schedule to adjust his previously scheduled meetings. My idea was to share with this big influencer all the information, projects and ideas which form ECOFFEE to have his highly reputable opinion about. What happened was that I did not only have the opportunity to have the Green Sheikh commenting what I have been building during the last year, but he also wanted me to join all his meetings and conference calls, introducing me to his world. And it is a big, very interesting one.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz today is Vice President and CEO of the Al Ihsan Charity Centre which supplies food and essentials to the needy. He has a life mission which is guided by Islam: “to achieve all manners of excellent deeds for the satisfaction of Allah (Muslim and Non-Muslim God).” In that mission is protecting the environment and thanks to his education (MA in environmental management, PhD in clean production) and his zealousness, he has activated and coordinated the formation of environmentally and socially responsible non-governmental organizations; created partnerships between public, private and local communities; has advised and raised awareness among decision makers, has participated in steering committees for strategic sustainability in major sectors, and have promoted these issues in the media in the regions of the United Arab Emirates, the GCC (Arabian Gulf Region), and in some other Arab countries, like Jordan. Last but not least, he believes that supporting and educating young generations is a must to create a better, sustainable future.

 As you might guess, I was a little bit intimidated when I first met him, but he was incredibly welcomed and “Down to Earth”, letting me feel at my ease straightaway. “Come with me, I show you the Al Ihsan Charity Centre”. He guided me to Centre, introducing me to his office manager Mr. Khalid, a smart and cleaver young future businessman, and Dr. Haki before leaving for an important meeting. Dr. Haki carefully explained me what the Center is about and what are the activities that takes place in that premise.

The Al Ihsan Charity Center, provides financial, health care and many others support to 9,000 families, 25% of local Emiratis and where each afternoon food is distributed to those who are in need. I was speechless and said to myself: “This is a great man who speaks with his actions, not only with wise words”. Back from the meeting, the Green Sheikh drove me to his house to have dinner with his kids – can you imagine how honored I was to be welcomed to his house too? After a delicious meal, we sat down in the living room and it was my turn to start talking to introduce him ECOFFEE. The knowledge and expertise of the Green Sheikh about the issues of sustainability and responsibility, much wider than mine and much at a worldwide level, brought a new perspective inside the ECOFFEE project. There are quite a lot of similarities between the ECOFFEE project and what Sheikh Abdul Aziz is fighting for. He has directly and indirectly influenced a ban on petroleum-based plastic bags, a new recycling program in Ajman, and an initiative to install sensors that will help reduce energy and water consumption. Although supportive of Masdar City as a hub for R&D in the UAE, the Green Sheikh prefers more modest initiatives, believing that “if 20% of the people had little Masdars and the government gave incentives that would make a difference.” As in ECOFFEE, small everyday gestures can make a big difference.

Surprise was not over that day, because our conversation had to be interrupted for a scheduled conference call with Terry Waghorn, CEO of Katerva, a charity organization registered out of the United Kingdom which delivers the Katerva Awards—the pinnacle of global sustainability recognition – and which acknowledge Sheikh Abdul Aziz among its Goodwill Ambassadors for his ability to take his ’holistic living’ message to the world, activating his moral networks worldwide and galvanizing people of all ages, religions and backgrounds. I was invited to assist at that conference, during which the Sheikh showed once again his being a great, “down-to-earth”, big influencer.

The day after, Sheikh Abdul Aziz had to attend the GITSI conference. GITSI is the Global Initiative Towards a Sustainable Iraq. He did not change his schedule because of my presence, much better: he kindly asked to change the conference schedule to allow me to introduce ECOFFEE to all the participants. That was a great opportunity given me by Sheikh Abdul Aziz and I was able to shrink my usually 40 minute long presentation into a dense 15 minutes span. All his supporting and sharing really made me understand what he meant by ” I am following the core values of an Islamic philosophy based on appreciation and respect. My holistic living message describes one as being connected to the daily circle of life; balancing the spiritual, the intellectual, the physical, the emotional, the aesthetic, the environmental and my own inner peace to help spread peace throughout the world and in the process achieve wisdom.”, values that we often forget about and that should instead permeate our lives.

The conference was over and we left the International guests towards another interesting meeting with the upcoming Dubai HUB managing partners. The time came to pray – and the Sheikh Abdul Aziz wanted to share with me that experience too, allowing me to follow him at the Mosque, another great new experience I have to thank him for. He told me: I will teach you the Wudhu, how to act in the Mosque and how to follow us in the prayer movements but you will be totally free to pray yours and our God. Another sign of his open mind. Meetings with big influencers and great inspiring conversations took place the last day too, and again the Sheikh introduced me to his world and network reinforcing my belief that it is possible to create a better business, a better life and a better world through collaboration, sharing and deep respect.

Green Certification Awarded to French Supermarket in China

China Certification & Inspection Group has reportedly issued the Green Market Certification to Carrefour’s six stores in Beijing, making the French supermarket one of the first retailers to gain the certification in the Beijing region.

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Liu Shengming, chairman of CCIC, told local media that the Green Market Certification has been fully launched in the retail sector of Beijing. Green Market Certification is a national certification system co-developed by the Ministry of Commerce together with the Certification & Accreditation Administration of China. Organizations that have obtained the Green Market Certification are allowed to use the uniform certification board. The Green Market Certification logo can be used in their marketing materials or other relevant information.

Luc Vandevelde, chairman of the Supervisory Board of Carrefour, has revealed the plan for Carrefour’s first green shopping center, where rainwater and energy can be recycled. Compared with a regular architecture, the green shopping center can save up to 30% in water and energy. In addition, it will use efficient materials to reduce the consumption of resources.

China Certification & Inspection Group, Shenzhen Company Ltd. operates a wide network of over 300 offices and laboratories which are located in major ports and cargo distribution centers around the world. With over 20 years’ experience in the inspection and certification field, CCIC has established cooperation relationships with more than 120 inspection and certification companies in over 60 countries and regions, including foreign organizations such as UL, CSA, and TUV Rhineland.(Source: China Sourcing News)

ECOFFEE at the next goGreen for packaging conference

We are happy to inform you that ECOFFEE is one of the partners of the next goGreen for packaging conference, that is going to take place in Rome next June 28th and wants to act as a catalyst for all those market players who believe sustainability is the future.
In a 20 minutes speech, ECOFFEE founder, Norman Cescut, will talk about the role of sustainability in the Retail business and why it is necessary for Retail to become greener.
Please contact us directly at info@ecoffee.it  for further information about the speech and for scheduling a meeting.

Vinitaly opens its doors with interesting data

Vinitaly focus on export and on the Italian market decline.

How to seize the new opportunities coming from abroad, particularly from Asian markets, and how to support the internal Italian market are the two main themes of the 2011 Vinitaly, the most important Italian Wine exhibition,  which is taking place in Verona (Italy), and will end on April 12 .

The Italian wine business is quite a big one, worth € 13.5 billion plus  a €2 billion deriving from induced activities. But there are lights and shadows. For example, on the exports side, 2010 experienced a growth  reaching a +12% equal to 3.93 billion euro, while domestic consumption is decreasing.
For the first time, reports Coldiretti (the Italian association of Agriculture farmers), 2010 showed a stagnation in the internal sales, now at € 3.89 billion. 

Riello, the President of Veronafiere, has stressed even more the wine business critical situation, the decline in domestic consumption, which continues, “was between 100 liters per capita in the Seventies, up to 45 liters in 2007, about 40 liters per person nowadays” showing a “further decreasing trend by 2015. ” The problem, recently highlighted by Giuseppe Martelli, director general of Assoenologi (the Italian Association of oenologists), is that “an oenology structured like the Italian one, cannot rely only on export.”

A couple of data: “in Australia only ten companies produce more than 90% of the wine exported, in Chile of 120 wineries, 100 are working only for export. In Italy, however, companies are more than 450 thousand, with an average size that is below the three hectares, compared to 300 in Chile and Australia. ”

Even a survey Vinitaly Winenews-emerges as foreign markets are critical to revenue growth, a situation that can cope with the larger companies, but few compared to many small enterprises that characterize the Italian production scenario and still have turnover rather weak.

A Vinitaly-Winenews survey on 50 companies among the most representative of the Italian business, show that 2010 ended with an average revenue increase of 8%, driven in particular by exports  (+14%).  As per 2011, the report show a degree of optimism: 75% of the interviewed said to be quite positive, 15% positive while a 10% of wineries that still feels the situation to be critical. The most critical points highlighted by the survey are economy instability, weak consumption, the loss of international competitiveness, the hars internatioanl competition.

The boom in exports, according to Coldiretti, is due largely to the U.S., which in 2010 became the country with the highest consumption of wine in the world. The American market, which is worth about $ 30 billion, is covered for 61% of production in California, but Italian wines are the most consumed ones, growing in value by 11%.

The most important destination of Italian wines are Germany, +4% in 2010, China – exports to this country doubled in 2010 – India, +65%, and Russia, +58%, equal to €104 million.

Coldiretti also analyzed the important value of the employment world of wine: the 250,000 Italian companies create jobs for for 1.2 million people. There are about half a million owners of vineyards, which have about 210,000 employees, of which over 50,000 are young and 30,000 are foreigners. And the wine business does not end in the vineyard, opportunities being in adjacent sectors like trade and catering, glass, cork, label and packaging, as well as research, publishing, finance, wine tourism, health, bio-energy. (Source:manageronline.it)

Preparing for the consumer economy of 2020

In a recent super session at Retail’s BIG Show, Ira Kalish, Director of Global Economics for Deloitte Research, gave an all-encompassing overview on the state of the global retail industry ten years from now, as well as his take on what the consumer of the future will look like.
Kalish kicked off with a run through of recent developments in global retailing, noting that it’s always useful to think about the future by reviewing the past.
In particular, Kalish highlighted some of the paths that lead towards the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009 and the lessons that were learned from that crisis: massive consumer leveraging in the U.S., U.K. and Spain; the collapse of the asset price bubble; emerging currencies rising; U.S. consumers paying down debts and saving more; housing no longer being seen as a source of economic growth; China’s move towards consumerism and consumer spending rising as a source of GDP; and the challenges faced in Europe due to imbalances between countries like Germany and Portugal, Ireland and Spain.

As for what retailers can expect in the consumer economy of 2020, Kalish pointed to a number of challenges and opportunities retailers should certainly have on their long term radar, such as the massive increase in emerging middle classes and the disproportionate share of growth in emerging areas of the world like Indonesia, Colombia and Africa.

The effects of an aging population in an increasingly affluent world will also be a key consideration for retailers of all shapes and sizes, while hot markets with younger demographics (India, Middle East and Africa) will also keep global retailers on their toes.

Kalish also noted, the impact of obesity, changing global food market dynamics, an ever-increasing focus on sustainability and the possibility of a social media revolution could play a heavy role within the consumer economy of 2020.

So what can retailers do to prepare for this new consumer outlook? Kalish believes that aligning company values with those of consumers will be critically important, as will leading and listening to customers. Taking care of your brands, your people and your investments will also pay dividends when it comes to engaging with consumers, something that will be fundamental for 2020’s consumer – and not a bad idea for 2011. (Source: NRF)

EuroShop: green is “hot”

Back from the EuroShop, with lots of a ideas and a big certainty: green is “hot”. From Green IT to green supermarkets and green products: retail is now aware of the trend toward sustainable economic management. Obviously, the market is still immature and retailers have lot to learn about what can be really sustainable in the long term – and this is where professional services like the ones we offer can be of a great help.

As stated on the EuroShop website, earlier this year, German Federal Minister of Economics Rainer Brüderle visited the “Klimamarkt” (“climate market”) by Tengelmann, across from the Tengelmann headquarters in Mülheim an der Ruhr. The politician of the FDP party said: “We need pilot projects like this to gather experience on how climate protection and economic efficiency can be reconciled.” Tengelmann deems the “Klimamarkt”, which already opened in December of 2008, to be “Germany‘s first CO2-free supermarket.”

The project admittedly does not stand up to an intense cost effectiveness analysis. “Demolition and new construction would have been cheaper”, Tengelmann spokesperson Jutta Meister admits on inquiry. And this is issue n.1 to take into account: the economics of retail sustainability.

“Particular attention also always needs to be paid to the economical aspect of sustainability”, says Tobias Walter of tegut. “We build beautiful marketplaces for our customers, which thanks to our consolidated know-how generally are not more expensive than the otherwise widely common ‘shoe box buildings’”. Kai Falk, Managing Director of Communication and Sustainability at the German Retail Federation HDE also believes: investments in sustainability in retail have a chance on a larger scale only if they also pay off financially.

And this pay off can be energy savings. In food retail, according to the EHI more than 55 Euros per square meter of sales floor are incurred for energy, in which cooling at 44 percent accounts for the largest electricity consumption. In non-food retail on average 31 Euros per square meter need to be spent. Here the largest portion at 65 percent is caused by lighting expenses.

The EHI notices a large willingness in retail to invest in energy savings practices. 80 percent of polled retailers are said to be willing to invest in energy-saving cooling systems and equipment. This high readiness can be explained by savings expectations of up to 20 percent. Aside from investments in new cooling devices, the choice of cooling agent is also getting more and more important, especially since the old R22-systems have to be converted. Cooling with CO2 was one of the big trade fair topics at the EuroShop 2011.

Many commercial enterprises work on new projects and initiatives about a more sustainable retail. Hardly anybody believes they can afford to not be a part of green topics. The discerning public will intently look at what’s show and what is true concern. But ultimately it is the consumers themselves that have to start rethinking, because they choose where they shop. They choose what they would like to stay away from.

What we do care about

As designers & consultants who are in stores every day, we see the good, the bad, and the ugly in this business. We see what works and what doesn’t. We admire those who take the time to share with us new ideas to build beautiful stores, who really establish solid connections with us, who agree with us that it’s imperative to have a winning concept in today market.

This might be true for many generic consultants around the world. But one of the things that we’ve noticed, is that we provide one other thing that is perhaps one of our greatest values. It’s that our customers can talk to us about their business, freely and openly, and get the help they need.  

Many Retailers certainly seek out advice from a number of sources, and most commonly from vendors.  Vendors certainly have a great view of the marketplace, and they too see a lot of what goes on in the Retail space. 

But at the end, the vendor’s solution to a Retailer’s problems will be to buy their product.  It’s a little like that old saying, “To a carpenter, everything is solved with a hammer.”

For us as designers & consultants, the only thing we honestly care about is whether or not that Retailer has made money, and if they are happy doing so.  In terms of product or vendor solution, we don’t have any “hammer” in the pocket.  Yes, we can suggest but a the very end, it doesn’t matter to us which vendor the Retailer buys, as long as it contributes positively to realize our design store, collaborating and to make the Retailer money. 

Please meet us soon at:

– Euroshop in Dusseldorf on the 26th and 27th of February

– Gulfood in Dubai on the 1st and 2nd of March