ECR-Blog

The European Congress for E-Invoicing & E-Billing: 11-12 October 2010

About the European EXPP Summit
The European EXPP Summit is one of the leading congresses on the subject of E-Invoicing and E- Billing. It is the main meeting place for all E-Invoicing experts from around Europe, offering a perfect platform to gather and share information on the latest trends and developments. The 6th European EXPP Summit takes place in Munich from 11th to 12th October. Read more of this Review

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ECR Community: Be in Touch!

Dear Guests of ECR Community,

We would like to remind you that all “fresh” & “hot” news from ECR Community, as well as other interesting thoughts and notes connected with retail and trade, you could find here, but also on our official accounts in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn! Join us to participate in discussions and just to be in touch.
News of this site by e-mail (RSS-feed)
If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to write - we’ll be glad to help you!

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Antitrust: new rules for manufacturers and retailers

On 1 June, the European antitrust regulation became stricter than ever before.  The new European Commission Regulation 330/2010 entered into force (replacing the previous EU Commission Regulation no. 2790/1999) and will apply to vertical agreements and concerted practices stipulated between manufacturers and retailers after 31 May 2010 (those already in force have a one-year grace period for compliance). The regulation will remain in effect until 31 May 2022.

The new regulation was illustrated on 29 June in Milan during the seminar organized by ECR in cooperation with HoganLovells law offices, entitled: “The new antitrust laws in vertical relationships between manufacturing and retail: understanding them to minimize risk”. The seminar was a prelude to the specific training session on this issue that Indicod-Ecr has planned for 27 October 2010, also in Milan.

Read more of this Review

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ECR IN EUROPE. NATIONAL INITIATIVES COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

There are currently 23 national ECR initiatives or organisations within Europe with different activity plans, business models and governance.

These initiatives gather over 1’800 leading companies as well as SMEs operating at national level, thus representing a critical mass within the consumer goods industry. These ECR initiatives are the voice of local business needs at international level.

To date, these ECR initiatives/organisations have issued more than 250 Best Practices blue books covering the different areas of the ECR strategy (demand, supply chain, enabling technologies, integrators) and optimizing other interface topics between manufacturers and retailers (OSA, traceability, sustainability, category management, POS data … The National ECR have procured topics and speakers for the ECR Europe Conferences and Forums for years.

The national ECR initiatives are a loosely-knit network of organisations which meet together with the objective of sharing information about ECR best practices amongst themselves for the benefit of their organisations and their national company members. There is no top-down or bottom-up approaches between national initiatives/organisations. In 2001, they created a “national ECR initiatives group” that is currently sponsored by ECR Europe. This group works closely with ECR Europe by participating to or initiating working groups. Read more of this Review

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ECR Europe looking to recruit new Managing Director

As of 2011 ECR Europe will be working under a new independent Managing Director and is currently looking for suitable candidates.

The successful applicant will

• be a leader with broad management and public capabilities, as well as outstanding interpersonal and communication skills;
• have a passion for our Consumer Goods Industry and its future opportunities;
• be a person with vision, capable of leading the Association in a dynamic industry during on-going evolution and change;
• have demonstrated strategic planning ability and skill at delivering results in an entrepreneurial environment;
• have a track record of successfully leading and building consensus in complex environments;
• possess excellent spoken and written English; a good command of other languages is important.

Qualified candidates can request the full job profile from the ECR Europe Secretariat (ecr@ecreurope.com). The deadline for applications is 15 August.

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Summertime job

Summertime, traditionally a bit lower season for ECR activities is used by ECR Poland to finalise the restructuring process and migrate the website to the ECR-ALL.org platform – a current work in progress!

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ECR Europe conference on 5-6 April 2011 – Call for Proposals

“Meeting the future together” – this will be the theme of the next ECR Europe  annual conference & marketplace in Brussels on 5-6 April 2011. ECR Europe is inviting poposals for content from the ECR Community by 24 September.

After the toughest economic conditions in living memory, the question for Europe’s consumer goods industry is simple: where do we go from here?

As manufacturers and retailers fight for market share and try to stay one step ahead in the battle for the consumer’s affections, the ECR Europe Conference & Marketplace returns next spring to examine the burning issues. Read more of this Review

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New ECR Europe publication on shrinkage

Find & Download this Report in ECRoPEDIA!

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ECR Europe General Assembly on 23 June 2010

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ECR Baltic Supply Chain group working on Pallet Pool Management

ECR Baltic Supply Chain-Pallet Pool working group has been working on Pallet Pool Management issues, analyzing the existing differences in pallet requirements by the retailers, as well as trying to pin down the potential benefits and possibilities of introducing a common pallet pool in the Baltic’s. Discussion about the effects and possible challenges of a common pallet pool has been raised among the biggest retailers and manufacturers operating in the Baltic States.

To better understand the main problems and current pallet management challenges faced by the manufacturers and retailers in the Baltic’s, survey about the existing pallet routines in companies has been forwarded to all ECR Baltic members and the preliminary results of the survey have been summarized. Nevertheless, more responses are needed to draw valid conclusions about the existing challenges and need of pallet management in the Baltic‟s. The survey is available by this link.

Furthermore, the offer of pallet polling service providers operating elsewhere in Europe has been analyzed, offering interesting insights into the pallet pooling practices elsewhere. In order to better understand and grasp the differences and benefits of each approach, companies that have expressed their interest in entering the Baltic market will be invited to present their services and offer to the members of ECR Baltic SC-Pallet Pooling working group.

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Nouveau conseil d’administration d’ECR France

Lors de leur Assemblée Générale du 17 juin 2010, les adhérents d’ECR France ont élu 3 nouveaux administrateurs : Vincent RINGENBACH, Directeur Général exécutif de CORA, Charles BOUAZIZ, Directeur Général de MONOPRIX et Jean-Mary POUPAT, Directeur commercial des FROMAGERIES BEL.

Ils ont également voté en faveur de l’ouverture d’un collège de membres associés qui réunira les industriels de l’amont, fabricants d’ingrédients et d’emballages, et les prestataires de service à l’industrie des biens de grande consommation. Les logisticiens sont les premiers de ce collège à avoir rejoint ECR France : GEODIS/Fret SNCF, DHL et LA POSTE.

Les administrateurs ont élu Hervé DAUDIN, Directeur général marchandises et flux de CASINO et Président de Cdiscount, coprésident distributeur de l’association paritaire française, et réélu Xavier FILOU, Directeur Général de la Politique Commerciale du groupe L’OREAL, coprésident industriel.

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Nouveau manuel de bonnes pratiques ECR France

Chaîne d’approvisionnement de 2012 – Mutualisation, multi-modalité, Massification – Rapport de la plateforme générale ” Langage commun” (Juin 2010, 44 pages)

La chaîne d’approvisionnement du futur sera une mosaïque de solutions d’optimisation, de mises en œuvre de bonnes pratiques et d’initiatives d’entreprises dans une approche d’amélioration continue ; les mots clés sont mutualisation, massification, multi-modalité et les leviers : information partagée, transport partagé, entrepôt partagé. Après la publication en juin 2009 d’un premier manuel, sous le titre ” Optimiser la chaîne d’approvisionnement – améliorer le taux de service aux consommateurs, maîtriser les coûts logistiques, diminuer les impacts environnementaux “, ce deuxième rapport offre aux acteurs engagés dans une démarche d’optimisation de leur chaîne d’approvisionnement une nouvelle boite à outils : définitions communes, schémas logistiques alternatifs, indicateurs clés de performance, cahiers des charges de du transport mutualisé et d’un entrepôt partagé…

Supply Chain 2012 – Mutualisation, Massification, Multimodality – Report of the general platform “common language”(jun 2010, 44 pages)

The supply chain of future will be a mosaic of solutions of optimization, implementations of best practices and companies’ initiatives in a continuous improvement approach; keywords are mutualisation, massification, intermodality with the levers: shared information, shared transport and shared warehouse. After the publication of a first bluebook in june 2009 entitled “Optimize the supply chain – improve the service level to the consumers, control the logistic costs and decrease the environmental impacts”, this second bluebook offers the actors who wants to otpimize their supply chain a new toolbox: common definitions, alternative logistic plans, key performance indicators, specifications of shared transport and of shared warehouse…

Pour plus d’informations, contacter ECR France

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ECR Russia Award: and the winner is…

This year for the first time ECR Russia launched the voting procedure for the ECR Awards 2010. The winners were named at the ECR Forum on June 2-3 in Moscow.

Our congratulations to the winners!

We are ready to receive calls for ECR Award 2011 nomination!

Read more of this Review

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ECR Community Forum in Russia [June 2-4] official Video

The presentations are available here.

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Working together with social markets is CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

Optimisation of the possibilities for manufacturers and retailers to allocate non marketable goods faster and in an organised way to distribute it under certain rules to persons with low income instead of disposal.

Social markets are facilities offering every day requirements at a very reasonable price to persons with low income. First social market in Austria (SOMA) was founded 09.09.1999 in Linz.

Targets:
• Help people, who really need it
• Don’t waste it, use it! (e.g. product with wrong packaging)
• Integration instead of social exclusion (Qualification and integration on job market)

Principles:
• Unsalable products are allocated to people, who really need it (e.g. Easter bunnies after Eastern, wrong freshness date, wrong packaging, left over of promotion packs etc.).
• Soled at a low price (10‐30% of normal sale price)products are not charity. Customers feel like real shoppers ‐ at eye level.
• SOMA doesn’t buy products from manufacturer/ retailers. Soled are only product, which were given free.
• No alcohol, no cigarettes in the assoetrement. Read more of this Review