WABEL summit unites buyers and suppliers

By Jim Cornall

- Last updated on GMT

WABEL's Chilled & Dairy Summit takes place this week, bringing buyers and suppliers together for business meetings.
WABEL's Chilled & Dairy Summit takes place this week, bringing buyers and suppliers together for business meetings.
The traditional format for trade shows is becoming an “old concept” for those doing business, says WABEL’s co-founder and managing director.

The WABEL Chilled & Dairy Summit takes place in Paris, France, April 13-14, for private label producers and European purchasing groups to develop new business opportunities.

One hundred buyers, from 50 retailers and foodservice companies, and 85 selected suppliers will attend.

The summit focuses on cheese, milk and cream, yogurts, ready meals, snacks and fresh juices.

The event employs a different model in that initially, buyers go the WABEL website and, with the help of a consultant, select the manufacturers they want to meet.

WABEL then provides individual agendas with prescheduled meetings for each participant at the summit.

Three-level concept

Antoine Bonnel, co-founder and managing director, WABEL, told DairyReporter that the company works on three levels.

“The first level is on the internet. We have a platform of 8,000 qualified, identified and checked suppliers.  This database connects to buyers – from Carrefour to Kaufland, to Aldi UK and Waitrose – who have the opportunity through the search engine to get in touch with suppliers from around Europe.”

The second level, Bonnel said, is meeting people and communicating.

“We get the complete information kit of the buyers, who call us and say, ‘I'm looking for a new dairy company, these are the requirements, this is the packaging we want, this is the region.’

“Our sourcing team checks the database, and come back with maybe 10 or 15 companies, to make sure that at least one or two will get the business.”

Finalization at summit

Bonnel said that the third level is the finalization that can take place at the summit meetings, which is the culmination of the work done previously.

“This brings a very high ratio of possibility and potential business opportunities. Every meeting provided at a WABEL summit to the suppliers is a meeting which has been approved by the buyers and has been prepared according to the needs of the buyers.

“Trade shows are becoming an old concept. People are looking for high-value immediate meetings. We're decreasing the budget a company would need to achieve such work, in time, money and value - on both sides.”

Other sectors covered

There will also be presentations, including from Mintel and Euromonitor, booths and an awards evening at the summit.

ASDA, Waitrose, Tesco, Monoprix, and Kaufland are among the purchasing groups attending the event.

Related news