Mark Slater, Managing Director, Dixons Carphone Ireland

Application for:

Industry Awards (for manufacturers only)Retailer of the Year Award

Choose and apply for nominations (you can apply to one, two or all three awards)

Category Specialist AwardTechnology Innovation AwardSustainability Award

Category Specialist Award

This award is specifically tailored to Category Specialists. Thus, brands which are active in one specific head category (i.e. not across multiple head categories) or even only in a subcategory. Category Specialists can often be trendsetters. Head categories are Appliances (MDA&SDA), CE (TV, photo), IT etc.

The past year was significantly influenced by increasing revenue headwinds, rising costs and declining consumer confidence. Have you, as a category specialist, impressed your retail partner, be it through outstanding cooperation or performance, and how would you describe this extraordinary achievement?

This could be a share increase within your respective category, margin achievement, punctual delivery and in full despite a whole host of challenges (production, logistics etc.), professional collaborative forecasting, jointly aligned activities across all sales channels (online/in-store/social media), product innovation, sales growth, etc.

Technology Innovation Award

Over the past year, which of your brand´s technology innovations made the biggest difference for your retail partner, exciting the shoppers and demonstrating the new technology to them in the best way?

This could be any innovation: a feature, a product, new product design or the creation of a whole new category. It could also be the reinvention or shifting of a whole category, e.g. creating higher value for the whole category.

Sustainability Award

The TCG retail industry is increasingly conscious of its environmental responsibilities. It is clear that consumer and legislative pressures (e.g”Right to repair”, “Eco design”, “Green claims”) are also building and are encouraging, or even forcing businesses and manufacturers to take dramatic steps to improve sustainability.

This category focuses on cutting-edge innovations and strategic solutions that are starting to deliver positive and significant environmental improvements and/or social benefits. The Grand Jury will be looking for a game-changing innovation or initiative be it a unique strategic or technologically-led solution and sustainable action plan (not just “green washing”). The nominees must demonstrate leading environmental improvements in areas such as emissions, consumption of natural resources, waste and recycling or people benefits along the value chain.

Retailer of the Year Award

The year 2023 was significantly influenced by increasing headwinds, rising costs and declining consumer confidence.

Have you demonstrated agility and boldness in adopting your operating model? In which ways have you catered to dominant themes like resilience, experience commerce and sustainability? (see full requirements in the application form). All three themes will be judged with the same weight factor by the Grand Jury (one-third each).

Resilience
1. Have you managed to do well on the market this year (in best case even gained market share) ideally by adjusting the value proposition towards the consumers?
2. Have you adapted to an innovative and collaborative approach with your key industry partners, including exchange of data?
3. Did you succeed to make your retail organization leaner, and did you manage to optimize processes?
Experience commerce
1. Have you done something specifically to engage consumers in your stores? (e.g. a new store format, lighthouse projects, different sku densities (i.e. substantially fewer SKUs on the same floor space), in-store events?
2. Have you developed a future store concept designed for the changed shopping journey and consumer demands which has been implemented recently or will be implemented shortly?
3. Are you using innovative technology like Gen AI to improve consumer experience and improve omnichannel integration, e.g. via chatbots and others?
4. Have you implemented value added services such as own instore repair stations, adjacent revenue streams (e.g. marketplace retail media, rental- or subscription models), a strong customer dedicated and personalized loyalty program or innovative, analytics-based product recommendations?
Sustainability
1. Have you been dedicating resources and investing seriously in the field of sustainability? What ambitious goals have you announced and/or verifiable results have you achieved?
2. What are the well-defined milestones of your action plan? What process or results can you share about how you’re ensuring you’re making progress towards your stated sustainability objectives?
3. How have you leveraged cooperation and partnership with various members of your brand network to help foster sustainability beyond your business?

To assist with your application, here are some hints and tips:

Your application is completely free of charge
For each industry award category, please fill in a separate application template
Be as precise and comprehensive in your description as possible
The more compelling your description, the more likely it is that you will capture the attention of the Grand Jury
Evidence of commercial success – ensure that your application is supported by tangible and accurate figures
You may support your application with visual material such as videos, powerpoints, statistics, analysis or screenshots
The more complete your application, the higher the chance you will be selected for the shortlist by the Grand Jury
The Leadership and the Brand of the Year Awards will be chosen directly by the Grand Jury
Should you have any questions during the application process or encounter any issues, please contact our project manager Anton at [email protected], +41 43 50 83 356

Anna Ohlsson-Leijon is currently Head of Commercial & Consumer Journey, Executive Vice President of AB Electrolux. Anna Ohlsson-Leijon began her career in 1993 at PricewaterhouseCoopers where she held various positions advising high-tech, industrial and media companies. In 2000, she joined Kimoda, an e-commerce platform, as Chief Financial Officer, before joining in 2001 AB Electrolux (Sweden) as Director of Project Management. Anna Ohlsson-Leijon then held various senior positions in corporate functions including Director Internal Audit & Global Program Manager Sarbanes-Oxley Act from 2003 to 2005, Head of Management Assurance & Special Assignments until 2008, Group Treasurer until 2011, Head of Corporate Control & Services until 2013 and Chief Financial Officer Major Appliance EMEA thereafter. She was then promoted to Chief Financial Officer of AB Electrolux in 2016. In 2018 she took over as CEO of the Business area Europe and as of July this year she got promoted to her current position of Head of Commercial & Consumer Journey, Executive Vice President of AB Electrolux leading the commercial agenda globally.
Anna Ohlsson-Leijon holds a Bachelor of Sciences Degree in Business Administration and Economics from Linköping University (Sweden). Director of Atlas Copco AB and Schneider Electric.

Emmanuel Fromont, Corporate Vice President, was appointed as President of Acer’s EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) Operations in January 2015. He has extensive experience in the EMEA market having served in this region prior to his stint in the U.S. From 2011 to 2014 Fromont led Acer’s Pan America team to strengthen the company’s prominence and market share in the region, and was responsible for the highly successful launch of Chromebooks in the U.S. market. From 2008 to 2010, Fromont served as Vice President of Acer’s EMEA Packard Bell Division, and credited with doubling PC shipments while contributing to the successful integration of Packard Bell into the Acer Group. Prior to joining Acer, Emmanuel held marketing and sales positions at well-known companies and brands such as IBM, HP and Packard Bell.

Ulrik is Head of International Key Account Management at BSH since April 2014. Prior to this, Ulrik worked for BSH in various positions and locations in Germany and abroad since 2000. During 22yrs at BSH, he has held management roles in Business & Strategy development, Marketing and Sales. Before BSH, Ulrik worked as Key Account Manager at Sixt Leasing AG and was responsible for Microsoft in Germany. Ulrik has an university diploma and holds degrees in European Management, European Community Law and Marketing.

Ragıp Balcıoğlu started his professional life in 1990 as a Marketing Manager before joining Arçelik Group in 1992. Mr. Balcıoğlu, who worked as the Import Material Purchasing and planning Specialist at Arçelik, was appointed in 1996 as the Commercial Manager in Beko UK. Spending time in the UK for about 19 years, Mr. Balcıoğlu worked in several positions at Beko plc, such as Product Marketing Director, Product Management and Supply Director, and Sales Director before being appointed Managing Director in 2011. After leading UK and Ireland operations between 2011 and 2015, Mr. Balcıoğlu returned to Istanbul Global Headquarters as the Chief Commercial Officer responsible for Arçelik Group’s international operations. He is an Industrial Engineer with an Executive MBA, graduated respectively from Istanbul TU in 1989 and Koç University in 1996. Having completed the Advanced Management Program in 2019, Mr. Balcıoğlu is also a Harvard Business School alumnus.

Stejara Pircan, Senior VP eMAG, has been leading the commercial strategy of the company for several years in Romania and the CEE region and played a significant role to business initiatives that eMAG launched during the past couple of years to respond the fast evolution of ecommerce as well as the challenges generated by the pandemic with a strong focus on customers’ needs, from expanding the range of products with new categories to developing new tools to facilitate a better customer journey. Stejara has a deep understanding of the business after leading multiple projects in various areas from customer engagement and trade marketing to supply chain. She holds a BA in International Economic Relations from the Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj Napoca and an MA degree in the Administration and Management and SMEs from the University of Clermont-Ferrand, Economic Institute, France. She has also completed an Executive Program for Growing Companies, Business Administration and Management, granted by Stanford University

Marta Gnjatovic graduated in 2011 from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam and has a Master’s Degree in Marketing Management. She started her career at Sanoma Media Publishing as Marketer for several print magazines. Since 2013 she has been with Coolblue. Marta started as Trade Marketer for the Home Appliances categories and moved on to managing the central team of Media Consultancy & Advertising. For the last 4,5 years she has been leading the Commercial Teams department (300+ FTE) where purchasing and sales for all consumer electronics categories come together.

Remko Rijnders (1978) is currently General Managing Director for Benelux. He started his career in 2004 as a trainee at Lidl, and moved to Kruidvat as district manager within a year. There he experienced Kruidvat’s transition from family business to operating company of the A.S. Watson Group. In the summer of 2008, Rijnders joined MediaMarkt. After four years in China, he was asked to work for MediaMarkt Turkey as Regional Director then COO. After five years at MediaMarkt, Rijnders moved back to Germany as CCO then VP International Procurement. In 2020, he returned to the Netherlands to lead Benelux operations, coordinating across the three countries.

My career journey started in management consultancy positions in world’s leading companies mainly focusing on finance and retail sectors and continued with leadership positions in various companies both in Retail, Loyalty Solutions and Financial Services. My general management experience started in 2011, first I was the CEO of Turkey’s leading loyalty solutions company between 2011 and 2017 followed by my founding CEO and Board member role in Sabancı Group’s E-money company. I actively work in various
NGOs focusing on gender equality in workforce. I am the Board member of one of the leading Educational Foundation’s of Turkey since 2016 and also one of the founding members of Women in Technology Association and Women in Board of Directors Association in Turkey. I am the first, only female member of the board of Euronics, Europe's largest electronics purchasing group and also a board member of Chain Stores Association. I have been working as the General Manager of Teknosa since September 2021.

Alyona Babushkina took the position of Consumer Channel Sales Director for Central and Eastern Europe at Microsoft Consumer Sales Organization Microsoft on July 1, 2019. In this role she leading sales of Microsoft consumer products such as Surface, Microsoft 365, Xbox and Windows, as well as developing the partner channel ecosystem with top CEE Retailers and Distributors. Alyona has extensive experience in sales and marketing in the consumer segment. She has been working at Microsoft since 2007 in various managerial roles, and during this time she has repeatedly proven her exceptional leadership qualities and focus on results. Alyona started her career at the corporation as the Director of Retail Sales for Russia and prior to taking up her current position as Channel Sales Director for CEE she served as Consumer Segment Business Group Director for Russia and CIS.

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