Exchange between trade and industry

Euro-Mat, the cooperative of European builders’ merchant and DIY voluntary organisations (with 23 members and 3 250 affiliated dealers) is staging the second Euro-Mat fair this year. The event is expected to attract between 500 and 600 participants to the Luxembourg exhibition site on 29 September. A new feature by comparison with the first event in Bordeaux two years ago will be two workshops. One will focus on “The strategic partnership as a new dimension of collaboration between trade and industry” which, in the view of Euro-Mat executive director Lucien Hardt, can no longer be limited solely to the payment of bonuses nowadays. Another workshop will introduce the newly developed modular specialist retail concept, which is intended to provide an answer to the diversification of the big international groups. Since the middle of August a start has been made on establishing the first stores designed according to this model in Poland. You can find a detailed report in issue 7-8/03 of DIY in Europe.