The greeting card and stationery retail sector is to have its voice heard at next week’s Retail Week Live event (March 27 and March 28) that is taking place at London’s O2.
Hailed, quite rightly as ‘The single largest gathering of retail leadership in the UK’, the Retail Week Live event will see well over 100 retail superstars share their views, tell their companies stories and confront retailing issues.
Among the business leaders who will be taking to the impressive stage to address a packed audience at this prestigious event will be those with a special interest in our sector.
Nickyl Raithatha, managing director of Moonpig will be a strong voice on a panel discussion entitled ‘Digital transformation, but how?’
He will be seeking to explain how creating a richly defined strategy is an enormous challenge when it might be out of date in three months’ time. With technology’s changing so fast, together with his fellow panelists, Nicky will use the example of Moonpig on how do you keep up, make money and ensure that your strategy can evolve and change on a regular basis.
The cut and thrust of being a start-up business in our sector will be covered by Gabi Cox, the entrepreneurial founder of Chroma Stationery. Four years ago Chroma was selling hand embossed notebooks to friends and family, we now sell across 28 countries and in bulk to the likes of American Airlines, Boots & ITV.
Gabi Cox created Chroma in April 2014 while in her final year of University. After graduating with a BA (Hons) in Fashion Promotion & Imaging and spending a couple weeks job hunting Gabi realised that she couldn’t give Chroma up.
The success of Chroma, which has its own take on stationery, means that Gabi is perfect to contribution to the discussions entitled: ‘Starting from scratch – a new model for retail’.
Using her own experience Gabi and her fellow panelists will talk about forgetting the old models and putting aside the history of retail to-date. Some of the questions to be answered will be ‘If you were starting a new consumer-facing business today, what would the perfect model be? What are investors looking for? What would your organization look like?
Among the many ‘big guns’ who will be imparting their views and news at the two day event, will be Lord Stuart Rose, (now chairman of Ocado, Majid al Futtaim, Fat Face and Oasis), Nick Beighton (ceo of ASOS), Berangere Michel (operations director of John Lewis), Claire Arksey (global executive director of retail for Urban Outfitters), Penny Parnell (leader of all things creative at Notonthehighstreet) and Mandeep Singh (ceo of Trouva).
Walmart International’s ceo Judith McKenna will be take to the stage as the first woman ceo to ever open Retail Week Live. Her keynote speech will offer an expert perspective on both thriving, and surviving in retail in 2019. Judith will look at the changing landscape of global retail and what it takes to lead a business in these challenging times.
Although not speaking at Retail Week Live this year, Karen Hubbard, ceo of Card Factory was one of the esteemed judges for the affiliated Retail Week Awards which recognised those who are excelling in the whole retail scene.
To see the full agenda of Retail Week Live and book tickets go to https://live.retail-week.com/
Top: The speakers at Retail Week Live include (left-right) Moonpig’s Nickyl Raithatha and Chroma Stationery’s Gabi Cox, while Card Factory’s Karen Hubbard was a judge at the Retail Week Awards.
