Personalisation is today’s key retail strategy, consumer shopper behaviouralist Ken Hughes told an audience of growers, retailers and suppliers at the new Cultivating Retail conference hosted by the HTA and GIMA.

Staged at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham, the event was chaired by Channel 4 news presenter Cathy Newman, and set out to look at the issues and opportunities that lie ahead for the garden industry.

Hughes explained how personalisation is more important than ever, and how businesses now need to be targeting an ‘Instant Generation’.

In a discussion titled ‘Is your Supply Chain Millennial ready?’ he said the current pace of change at the moment was disruptive, with six generations of consumers walking through the doors at any one time. Highlighting the differences between Babyboomers, Generation X, Millennials and Generation Z, he suggested that the way the music industry had changed for each of them was an example of how retail strategies should be approached.

Ken concluded his talk with racing driver Mario Andretti’s famous  quote: “If everything seems under control, it just means you aren’t going fast enough.”

Will Seymour talked about how people now wish-list for pleasure as well as for purchases, and Trewin Restorick showed the many ways in which environmental charity Hubbub has made recycling a fun activity that people want to take part in. Paul Pegg from Reynolds Catering Supplies provided supply chain insight from the food service industry showing how collaboration is the key to success.

The programme included two insightful panel sessions covering plastics in horticulture and supply-chain issues.

Expert sessions from Claire Harper and Alan Roper (MD, Blue Diamond Group, above) offered their experiences of how to ‘delight the customer’.

Summarising, Cathy Newman highlighted how agility was the watch word of the day with businesses needing to be prepared for the next changes – whatever they may be.

The day was then topped off with a dinner, where the inspirational speaker was record-breaking cyclist James Golding, who gave a compelling, honest and uplifting talk of his life experiences and motivations.  James concluded by declaring that he was going to win the Race Across America in 2020.