A very happy new year. I wanted to take this opportunity to write and introduce myself as the incoming Chair of the Society for Location Analysis, taking over from Peter Sleight who, as many of you will know, retired last year. I’d like to express my appreciation to Peter for his tremendous work for SLA; we were able to thank him in person late last year with a tankard which, I understand, he is already putting to good use!
The programme offers managers with oversight of planning, development and site assessment – from retail, consumer service, property and other professional services businesses – the opportunity to explore the latest thinking in retail location analysis. The programme remains the only one of its kind.
Developed markets across Europe continue to experience economic challenges, which have direct effects upon consumers’ confidence and retail spending. Combined with the impact of non-store retailing on established retailers, the main priorities for location analysis professionals will be the continuous evaluation of existing sites, the optimisation of network performance – and, where relevant, the consideration of selective disposals.
We know that all kinds of locations – High Streets or out-of-town – and all sizes of organisation are under pressure. For some businesses, however, exploring the opportunities presented by newly vacated sites, or running the slide rule over potential acquisitions, whether nationally and internationally, is still a real possibility.
We believe that our three-day residential programme is the only one of its kind. Our tried and tested, deliberately small-scale approach, encourages discussion with speakers and individual learning through techniques workshops.
Dr Jonathan Reynolds ran the 2013 programme in tandem with Dr David Rogers from DSR Marketing Systems in the US. Between the two of them they have over 50 years of experience in site location issues. Other contributions were made by visiting practitioners and experts.
And for the third year running, we were delighted that location planning experts from CACI supported the programme.
Sessions offered in 2013 included:
To book email OXIRMenquiries@sbs.ox.ac.uk
Venue: The New Cooperative Group HQ, The Auditorium, 1 Angel Square, Manchester, M60 0AF
Download: Manchester Campus Visitor Guide
Date: Tuesday, 3rd September 2013
Time: 6.00 for 6.30pm
Refreshments will be provided.
Thanks to everyone for attending this event. With over 45 attending and 50 booked it was yet another successful SLA event with some really thought provoking presentations and interesting debates, not to mention excellent catering from The Cooperative Group. Special thanks to our excellent speakers and The Coop for hosting.
Download “What does convenience mean?” (659 KB) by Blair Freebairn.
Download em>”Market factors & business opportunities in international convenience retailing” (2,581 KB) by Dr Jonathan Reynolds.
Download “The evolving convenience market: a retailers perspective” (1,564 KB) by Mark Harlow.
Our next event it taking place at The Cooperative Group’s new headquarters in Manchester on Tuesday 3rd September.
Registration will be from 6pm and the presentations will begin at 6.30pm.
We have an excellent line-up for this event. Joining Mark Harlow, Senior Location Analysis Manager from The Cooperative Group will be Blair Freebairn, Founder and Principle of GeoLytix and Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management. Blair will be sharing his thoughts on what convenience means to different customers in a multi-channel, multi-format world and Jonathan will be talking about the market factors and business opportunities in international convenience retailing.
The Co-operative Group will be sharing their experiences in the convenience market, looking at how the convenience market has evolved from a retailers perspective and what challenges remain.
Dr Jonathan Reynolds, Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School
Jonathan Reynolds is Academic Director of the Oxford Institute of Retail Management and Associate Dean at the University of Oxford’s Said Business School.
A geographer and planner by background, he now works with students of marketing and retailing of all ages and leads applied research projects on the sector internationally.
He is the current director of the longstanding Oxford Retail Location Analysis workshop.
Blair Freebairn, Founder and Principal Geolytix
o Founded Geolytix 2011 to present
o Global head of analytical data and routing at PB MapInfo – 2011
o Manager of the MapInfo UK predictive analytics (PA) business 2009-2011
o Principal architect and methodologist for EMEA PA 2005-2009
o Modeller working in UK retail 2001-2005
o Head of Site Research at UK largest leisure retailer 1997-2001
o Operational management for leisure retailer 1991-1997
o Over the last ten years have served the site research teams at the majority of the top 25 UK retailers
About GeoLytix
o Founded by Blair Freebairn in 2011 to deliver vendor neutral spatial analytical consulting, development and deployment services
o Sarah Hitchcock joined in Oct 2012 from managing the Network Planning team at J Sainsbury’s bringing additional business consulting, project management and training skills
o Recent projects have included bespoke store forecasting models, training, custom data development, system development and consulting projects
o Can be found via www.geolytix.co.uk or by email to blair.freebairn@geolytix.co.uk
Mark Harlow, Senior Location Analysis Manager, The Co-Operative
Mark has a strong retail background stemming from a number of store management roles at Tesco. He has worked as an Area Manager on the Express format and prior to that managed stores within the Extra hypermarket format.
He has also recently completed his MBA in Retail at Stirling University.
Having initially worked as a Regional Location Analyst, Mark now leads the North team of analysts assessing and delivering on new food retail opportunities for the Co-Operative Group.