The Sri Lankan Retailers Association, the apex body for organised retailing in Sri Lanka, with a view to uplift the industry post COVID, carried out a series of expert webinars on the topic of “Recovering Sales and Profitability After the COVID Pandemic". The series was facilitated in partnership with Upskill People UK, who provide effective online learning to retail companies globally with offices in Europe and APAC.
The sessions were carried out by Mr. Brian Hume of Martec International, a world leading expert on retail business processes and systems. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Martec International. Brian has a retail career spanning over 40 years and has consulted to retailers and consumer goods manufacturers across Europe, North America, South America, the Middle East, Asia and Australia. He provided the participants with information they require to develop their own tailored plans for achieving a successful return to profitability post COVID.
The program was divided into two separate sessions. The first was carried out on 14th September focusing on all the various aspects of inventory management and managing the cash flow implications resulting from lockdown. The second session was held on 16th September focusing on which customer segments you most need to recover, how to focus your consumer recovery aspects, how to modify store and omni-channel services to consumers and both sessions addressed the related change management dimensions of ensuring success. Each session was followed by a Q&A session.
SLRA is hopeful that this knowledge sharing initiative was able to fulfil its objective of providing its membership with what strategies to adopt, processes needed in changing and the types of changes that will be most relevant and what considerations will need to be given to change management. The association is progressively working towards uplifting the industry and continues to strive with an ambitious vision of ‘Achieving Retail Excellence’ by being the ‘Voice of the Retail industry in Sri Lanka’. The Association represents over 40 leading retailers as members from diverse retail sectors such as FMCG, Clothing, Fashion & Jewellery, Household & Consumer Durables, Footwear & Accessories, E-Commerce, Entertainment & QSR and Healthcare & Wellness.