More than 1,000 independent retailers from the across the country attended Ireland’s largest virtual retail trade event hosted by BWG Foods on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6 and 7 July.
According to the grocery retail and wholesale group, reflecting the continued reopening of the economy and a significant increase in staycation activity across the country, food and beverage products in impulse categories were among the strongest performers across the two days.
“When we first held the BWG Foods Trade Show, we were in a period of economic uncertainty and now, 11 years later, we are once again faced with an uncertain environment due to COVID-19," Simon Marriott, chief operations officer, BWG Foods, said.
Suppliers that secured a significant uplift in sales versus last year included Innocent Drinks (+63%), Suntory (+50%), Coca-Cola (+31%) and Tayto Snacks (+24%).
Indigenous And Multinational Suppliers
Over 200 indigenous and multinational suppliers, spanning categories including health & wellness, fresh food, pre-prepared meals, chilled produce, beverages and confectionary, received exclusive access to the largest grouping of retailers in Ireland - representing over 1,000 retail stores across the Spar, Eurospar, Mace, Londis and XL retail brands.
BWG Foods first established what has become the largest food industry event of its kind in 2010, and last year hosted the event virtually for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Managed by video-conferencing tools, suppliers delivered 25 presentations and seminars that generated record sales via a purpose-built online purchasing platform.
"We feel strongly that new ways of doing business must be embraced as a means of overcoming the current challenges and we’re therefore extremely proud of the overwhelming success of our virtual trading event last week," Marriott added.
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