LOGISTICS CONFERENCE SET TO PROVIDE GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

ADAM BLAIR

PARIS -- Attendees will be able to compare the strong points of European and North American supply chains at the Global Logistics Conference in Boston next week, June 17 to 19.

This is the first time that CIES here and the Food Marketing Institute, Washington, are co-sponsoring this conference.

"The whole theme is to take the top, leading-edge experience and practitioners of the United States and Europe, in order to examine opportunities for cross-fertilization," said Lawrence Christensen, logistics director of Safeway U.K., Hayes, England, a co-chairman of the conference.

Renato Cellupica, vice president of distribution at Price Chopper Supermarkets, Schenectady, N.Y., the conference's other co-chairman, agreed that the conference would be a "mutual learning experience.

"Europeans excel in taking days of inventory out of their supply chains, for example," Cellupica added. "There are a lot of opportunities to learn from them, and apply their techniques in order to do a better job."

Christensen noted that U.S. companies' strengths included moving products over vast distances, the wide range of products available, and innovations in both products and retail stores themselves.

Presentations at the conference will carry the theme of cross-cultural exchanges, with scheduled speakers such as Larry Castellani, executive vice president of Ahold USA, Atlanta, speaking on "Comparing U.S. and European Supply Chains."

Two case-study presentations will explore trans-Atlantic transfers of supply-chain best practices. One will detail Coca-Cola's Efficient Consumer Response project with Albert Heijn; the other will explore the import of best practices by Shaw's Supermarkets from its parent company, J. Sainsbury.

Both retailer and manufacturer perspectives will be presented in workshops addressing key issues for supply chains around the world. One topic is transporting perishables safely through the supply chain; the other is the supply-chain's effect on the environment.

The two associations' co-sponsorship of the conference reflects the increasingly global nature of the supermarket industry, said Cellupica. While the FMI's meetings draw attendees from countries in South America and the Pacific Rim, "our exposure to the world is not as broad as CIES," he noted.