Europe and the world

The organisers had made quite clear in the run-up to the event that they were aiming for a congress of superlatives, something that was expressed in the name itself: it wasn’t “only” to be a European forum like last year in Vienna but a truly global DIY summit. Some 400 senior executives from 35 countries, including 35 CEOs of retail companies from around the world, responded to the invitation to participate in the 1st Global DIY-Summit, to be held in Brussels in June. But it stands to reason that, when a congress is organised by the two European associations of DIY retailers and DIY suppliers, EDRA and FEDIYMA, the great majority of participants will inevitably come from Europe. The European focus was underlined not least through the choice of Brussels, the capital of Belgium and headquarters of both the European Commission and the European Parliament (along with Strasbourg in France), as the venue. In practice, however, the modern “Le Square” congress centre was not up to the conference requirements in every respect. Since the event was being held in Brussels, a representative of the European Union ought of course to address it. Though the appearance of Janez Potoc˘nik, European commissioner for the environment, was actually a disappointment: the politician did not make the effort to respond to the questions specifically affecting the DIY market. Otherwise the programme of talks and discussions was pitched on a good level, though rather uneven at times. The heads of the two associations, Régis Degelcke as vice CEO of Groupe Adeo for EDRA and Reinhard Wolff as managing partner of Wolfcraft for FEDIYMA, opened the congress with a dialogue. The two presidents displayed great unanimity on the open stage, just as they had the previous year in Vienna. “One World” was the conference motto, which certainly allowed for the inclusion of subjects like sustainability and global integration in quite general terms. For instance, what Gregory M. Bridgeford of Lowe’s had to say to the audience on the subject of sustainability was not necessarily totally new to European ears. During the following panel discussion he stressed the responsibility of retailers for the “education of the consumers”. Obi boss Sergio Giroldi adopted the perspective of the customer when he said,”We have to talk about affordable sustainability.” In another panel discussion, this one articulately presented by Thierry Coemann, the speakers included Kingfisher CEO Ian Cheshire, who pointed to the…