Speaker Profile: Simon Uwins

Today, we would like to introduce you to our next keynote speaker, Simon Uwins. The Market Research Event will take place from October 13 - 16, 2008 in Anaheim, California at the Disneyland Hotel. Simon Uwins is the Chief Marketing Officer of Fresh & Easy, a chain of grocery stores that are located in southern California, Nevada and Arizona.

Tesco, a British grocery giant, decided to start preparing market research in 2005 to move a chain of grocery stores into the United States. They sent Uwins to the US to spearhead the project. To conduct extensive market research, Uwins and his team went to grocery stores existing in the areas, and also interviewed locals about their preferences when shopping and about other supermarkets. Their major findings revealed that customers wanted fresh, affordable food that was close to home. Their business model then focused on being a neighborhood store providing all the foods shoppers wanted in one stop. In different areas, they conducted ethnographic research in order to stock the stores with the preferences of the neighborhood. Tesco is one of the largest retailers in Great Britain, and are committed to investing $2 billion in the Fresh and Easy stores. They recently took a three month break from opening stores in the United States to readjust to the preferences of their new customer base: increased product selection, more colors in the stores, and more deals on the foods they're selling.
Here is a video of Simon Uwins explaining the set up of the Fresh & Easy stores: http://www.venturacountystar.com/videos/detail/fresheasy0208/
Simon also takes time to write the Fresh and Easy blog: http://www.freshandeasy.com/blog/
We invite you to come see Simon Uwins at The Market Research Event as he presents his keynote speech on Wednesday, October 15th, CMO Spotlight: Fresh & Easy: Uncovering New Opportunities in Retail Through Research.
(Sources: ABC News, Daily Breeze, Hub Magazine, 7 News ).