Sainsbury's boss Mike Coupe was grilled on stage about a range of topics at today (6 October)'s IGD event in London, The Big Debate.
Coupe, sporting a cast on his wrist for an injury sustained while out cycling, one of his favourite past-times, spoke about a number of the key issues facing the grocery market in 2015.
Here are the key points Coupe raised in his answers to questions by event host, Nils Blythe.
Coupe on store size
'The challenge is to reinvent the large out of town store formats to be more convenient.'
Coupe on competition
'The market is changing incredibly quickly. We're seeing the rise of more and more shops, and customers have never had as many choices as they have today.'
Coupe on 'omni-channel' shopping
'My daughter is 20, and she is in uni at Bath. She shops through her mobile phone - she buys ten items of clothing, and sends nine back, and is perfecly ok with that. On the other hand, my mum is 78. She shops in store pretty frequently, and sees it as a sociable experience. We've got to make the experience personalised to the shopper. Online is profitable, and an important part of the overall relationship with anytime, anywhere shoppers. But20 per cent of the UK population will be over the age of 60 in five years’ time, and we must not lose sight of that.'
Coupe on the future of shopping
'In the future we won’t shop online, we will subscribe so it just turns up.'
Coupe on Netto
'We will have 15 Netto stores open by March. It's early days, but we want to have some stake in the discount market game.'
Coupe on Sainsbury's sales
'We’ve seen a return to volume growth for the first time in some time. It’s an encouraging trend, and something that I wouldn’t have predicted this time last year.'
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