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In October financial analysts Capel‐Cure Myers had the intriguing idea of putting on a seminar centred largely around the stories of three major retail companies — Burton, Debenhams, and Tesco — all of whom have been through pretty rough times over the last decade or so but have managed, relatively recently, to achieve successful turn‐rounds — to show improved turnover and profit figures, in effect, to “regenerate”. In each case the chief executives of these companies spoke frankly about the mistakes their organisations had perpetrated, and the solutions they had adopted to bring about essential change. Intriguingly, though the companies are all very different in their retail formats — a grocery multiple, a specialist clothing chain, and a department store group — yet they had several solutions in common. Ralph Halpern of Burton pinpointed the secret of his success as “multi‐strategy market positioning”, which means identifying specific segments of the market and operating several companies with clear identities which are positioned to appeal to them. Much the same was done by Debenhams, who found in the early 70s that their traditional middle‐class department store market had faded away with Edward Heath's three‐day week and the power cuts, and they had to position themselves to appeal to an entirely different clientele. And all three companies emphasise the need for efficient systems of information technology. “Historically,” says Tesco's Ian MacLaurin, “we traded in goods. Now we trade in information too.” Remarkably, and an added factor which makes the achievement of these companies more striking, is the fact that recovery, for all three, took place against a background of the worst recession this country has seen for several decades.

Hugin Kassaregister is probably unique in cash register companies in that it has a retailer for its parent company — the Swedish Co‐op organisation KF. And moreover, the Swedish Co‐op has been regarded for decades as being the most efficient Co‐op in Europe. Currently, Konsum (which manages the retail co‐op operations), against a background of recession and a recent general strike in Sweden, is pausing for breath while it plans its future — especially in terms of areas of diversification and the relationship of the retail societies to KF itself. A close association exists between the retail Co‐op societies and Hugin, which benefits greatly from Co‐op retail expertise. Producing a wide range of machines from low‐range to sophisticated POS systems, the company's future strategy in terms of product development will be in the food market. Edward McFadyen reports on a recent trip to Sweden.

Planners and retailers are notoriously bad at understanding each other's needs. Central to the lack of communication between the two sides — certainly as far as the location and number of large‐scale units is concerned — has been the planners' insistence on land use, seen within the context of community needs; and the retailers' insistence on the benefits that superstores and hypermarkets can bring in terms of their impact on the cost of living — in itself by no means an insignificant “community need”. Some progress was made towards removing this somewhat sterile attitude of confrontation at the end of May, when Hampshire County Council and the EDC for the Distributive Trades had the happy notion of organising a conference at Winchester for planners and retailers, to discuss two specific points: are town centres the right place for new shops, and can the small shop survive? Crowds of people turned up and much useful dialogue followed. But no firm conclusions were arrived at — and indeed there seemed to be some major disagreements between retailers themselves. Very little that emerged from the conference would be helpful in planning a national strategy for location, but it was a useful beginning in terms of improving the level of understanding between the two sides. The general consensus seemed to be that further conferences would certainly be a good idea.

In all the discussions about the political situation surrounding EFTPOS — who pays for it, the need for standardisation, the apparent lack of firm representation by retailers — the question of the consumer has tended to be overlooked. Two recent conferences did something to redress the balance, and also threw some light on how EFTPOS might evolve.

In America, White House policy on the preferability of siting shopping centres downtown rather than in suburban locations has recently been expressed. It coincides with our own policy in the UK of urban development, and indeed a move across Europe generally to come in from the suburbs to the town centres. This was one of the main themes debated at the annual conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres in Paris in March.

The trend towards large scale retailing, both on the continent and in the UK, is leading inexorably towards a polarisation of outlets which is creating signficant gaps in our shopping facilities. In the UK, it is arguable that the rigidity of our planning system is inhibiting the expansion of continental‐type out‐of‐town shopping developments. As we go into the European Community, the divergencies between continental and UK patterns of retailing seem to be widening. These were some of the issues which emerged at the International Retail Conference recently organised by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Zurich. The conference is held every year (chaired by Harry Bohrer) and this was the best‐attended so far. It also had the highest proportion of UK delegates.

A number of leading retail companies gave detailed descriptions of how they had developed merchandising policies for the 80s at a two‐day conference organised by RMDP, and held in London towards the end of June.

The emphasis was very much on retailing at the British Interactive Video Association's (BIVA) annual show held at Brighton last December. Interactive 88 had a record 64 exhibitors, and a full conference programme which included a retail stream. Staff training and customer information are the two principal applications of IV in retailing; company users include B&Q, Selfridges, and Body Shop.

With the opening of the Quatre Temps shopping centre in La Defense complex in Paris, a major design project for Conran Associates has been completed. This feature looks at some of the principles the company follows in its approach to both store and product design.

The Aspect Group started only five years ago when its creator, Ted Coogan, wandered into a DIY shop and offered the owner some advice about shop planning. Today the group has a turnover of £1.5m and numbers among its clients such names as Etam, Readers Digest, Raybeck, Coventry Economic Building Society, Harris Queensway and Frames Tours. RDM talked to Ted Coogan about his design philosophy.