On November 13-15, 2018, St. Petersburg hosted the XXVII International Food Exhibition "Peterfood-2018", organized by the Congress and Exhibition Company "Imperia".

The "Peterfood" exhibition is one of the largest regional food exhibitions one of the oldest once in Russia. For 27 years it remains the leading event in the food sector of the North-West of Russia.

There were many interesting trends in 2018 caused by in-depth processes in the industry:

• the number of exhibitors has grown due to participants from different regions of Russia from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok, half of them took part in the exhibition for the first time. Regional manufacturers presented high quality products at affordable prices

• IT-technologies are becoming an essential part in the food sector. For example, IT-platform "FarmerExpert" from Turkey became the general sponsor of the exhibition. This platform was first presented at the "Peterfood" exhibition, it is a service which unites farmers with wholesalers and the final consumers, allowing to reduce purchasing prices by 50%.

• for two consecutive years the exhibition has been breaking visitors number record, which increased by 30% once again;
  
  

The strategic objective of the "Peterfood" exhibition is to straighten relations between food producers, retail chains and traditional retail. It is still the only exhibition in the country that provides exhibitors with the guaranteed possibility to negotiate with retail chain buyers directly at their booth. As part of the special program "Active Chain Participation", more than 100 representatives of purchasing departments of 42 leading retail chains visited the participants' booths. Over 2,000 supply negotiations were held, which is 15% more than last year.

Statistics of the «Peterfood-2018» exhibition:

• 7500 professional visitors;
• 8500 negotiations with chains at exhibitors' booths and at the Chains' Wholesale Centre™;
• 200+ exhibitors from Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkey, Japan, Georgia, Poland, India, France, Monaco, Latvia, Bulgaria;
• 115 buyers from 50+ retail chains and purchasing alliances;
• 200 suppliers at the Chains' Wholesale Centre™;
• 350 participants at the "Big City Trade" food forum;
• over 1000 participants of Open seminars for food market specialists.
  
  

The traditionally highly topical business program of the exhibition was focused on the tasks that participants of the food market are facing today. This is the assortment adaptation to the new buyers' capabilities, search for investment resources, maintaining the "price-quality" balance, business maintenance and development. Relationships of food suppliers and retail chains are still a priority. The events of the business program were for the first time united as "St. Petersburg Retail Days". It helped to find the most profitable solutions in the current situation. Namely:


Chains' Wholesale Centre™

At the Chains' Wholesale Centre™ over 200 manufacturers and 115 buyers from 50+ retail chains held more than 3 500 negotiations on the products supply with both manufacturers' own brand and the chains' private label. The largest regional meeting of suppliers and retailers gathered at the same site the purchasers of such chains as: X5 Retail Group, Auchan, Magnit, O'Key, Dixy, Metro C&C, Azbuka Vkusa, Spar, VkusVill and more than other 30 chains. According to the buyers' estimates, more than 70% of the proposals they received were interesting and would help them in forming a new food range. In the near future, residents of St. Petersburg will be able to see a lot of new competitive products on the shelves of retail stores.

In a specially organized area for buyers – Retail Lounge – representatives of retail chains could evaluate the best products of the exhibition, relax and provide consultations while drinking a cup of coffee or a glass of wine.

XVIII St. Petersburg "Big City Trade" Food Forum

This year, a number of participants of the main meeting of the top officials of the food business has grown by 30%. This forum brought together more than 350 participants from 11 countries and 68 cities of Russia and the world: food products manufacturers and suppliers, retail representatives, trade associations and the mass media. Representatives of the X5 Retail Group, Verniy, Dixy, Regional Retail Cooperation, INFOLine, GfK Rus companies and other major market players highlighted the trends and prospects of retail trade on the threshold of 2019, issues of assortment rotation, purchasing price increase, cooperation with retail chain alliances, private labels development plans, audit production by retail chains and many others.

III North-West Trade Forum "Non-commercial purchases in retail chains" with the Non-Commercial Purchases Centre

In 2 days, more than 40 suppliers and 20 representatives of retail chains (in total more than 60 participants) were attended the non-commercial purchasing forum. This event became a platform for discussing the problems of non-commercial products range supplying to the retail chains, namely: automation systems, shelves, baking equipment, refrigerators, air purification services, logistics, marketing and advertising, and many others. At the forum, all participants tried to understand the diversity of the processes occurring in the field of non-commercial purchases in retail chains. The final event of the Forum was the "Centre of Non-Commercial Purchases in Retail Chains", where suppliers of the non-commercial products range held negotiations with purchasers on the supply of specialized goods and services that retail chains need for the full functioning.

Open seminars

30+ open seminars held by the Stars of Russian Consulting™ for food market professionals gathered more than 1000 network and traditional retail professionals, distribution companies, HoReCa and North-Western region suppliers in three days. Organizer: Congress and Exhibition Company "Imperia" with support of the Administration of St. Petersburg, Retail.ru and the Association of Russian Branding Companies.

The workshop program covered the most interesting topics for specialists. Here are just some of them: HoReCa, small retail, personnel motivation, food promotion, sales growth, as well as lean production. Among the speakers: Sergey Ilyukha (General Director, Liga Commersantov), Dmitry Kuznetsov (Project Manager, Real Work Management), Sergey Lishchuk (Managing Partner, Retail4you), Iya Ishminetskaya (Business Trainer), Anna Tishchenko (Expert, Retail Practical Management), Mstislav Voskresensky (Managing Partner, DirectFood), Nikita Kellerman (Purchasing Director in Russia and the CIS, Liberty Trade & Exports), Ekaterina Buzukova (Independent Assortment Management Consultant).

Competitions for food manufacturers

As part of the exhibition, the main industry-specific competitions "Our Brand", "Innovative Product" and "Chains' Choice" were held for the St. Petersburg and North-Western region food industry enterprises. The competent jury included recognized experts, retail chains' purchasers, leading specialists from the "Saint Petersburg Work Quality Control Center" and representatives of the ITMO University. 63 companies whose products meet modern world standards, are notable for novelty and high quality were awarded with gold and silver medals. 57 products received "Chains' Choice" competition diplomas.

The business program of the exhibition ended with the Directors' Buffet, which was held at the Hilton hotel. Accompanied by jazz improvisations from the Big Buddy Band and the Barman Show with impressive visual effects, food suppliers secured their acquaintance with retail chains' buyers in a friendly atmosphere.