The Society for Location Analysis

Location Issues in Drinks Retailing

Date: Thursday 14th April 2005

The first Society for Location Analysis meeting of 2005 was a very interesting and lively evening enjoyed by the ten delegates who travelled to The Reflex bar in Birmingham.

The evening took place in an upstairs room at The Reflex Bar, a premium venue in the heart of down-town Birmingham, located next door to the International Convention Centre and Birmingham’s version of the London Eye.

Jack Steenstra, Manager of Distribution Strategy at Abbey chaired the evening, beginning with introductions from each delegate, which worked very well with the small group of delegates.

Dave Turner, Location Planning & Development Manager at Mitchells & Butlers presented in his usual lively and motivational style, discussing the locational issues that he faces, and the similarities and differences compared with other types of retail.

Dave’s presentation was very well received and provoked much lively debate amongst the delegates. Delegates included representatives from Abbey, Dominos Pizza Group Ltd, Gerald Eve, Halfords Group Plc, Whitbread plc, Punch Taverns, Mitchells and Butlers, Birmingham City Council.

One issue that provoked particularly lively debate was Mitchells & Butlers use of data providing proposed commercial, retail and residential redevelopment and expansion in an area. Dave used this data to decide the best locations for particular brands. Data sources for this type of information are very hard to come by. We were lucky to have Michael Moran from Gerald Eve at this seminar. He was able to explain how Gerald Eve researched and produced this information and give an insight into the difficulties of accurately forecasting these types of development.

Nigel Godfrey of Birmingham City Council also provided another angle of discussion. It was very interesting to hear the challenges and issues facing town centre managers. Nigel suggested a joint event with the Association of Town Centre Managers (www.atcm.org.uk), which is definitely something that the SLA will pursue.

The Society for Location Analysis would like to thank Dave Turner of Mitchells and Butlers for presenting, hosting and providing the refreshments for this excellent networking evening. We would also like to thank Jack Steenstra for chairing the evening and all the members who attended and helped to make this event a lively and interesting networking evening.

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