First-ever NBC Conference builds strong relationships

NBC’s first-ever conference – held earlier this month at the Grandium Hotel, Prague – received ‘a tremendous reception’ from both members and suppliers.

The group’s managing director David Lunt commented: “It was great to get like-minded people together for an event that has been a great success in building strong and productive relationships between our members, suppliers and the NBC leadership team. The balance between business sessions and social events was appreciated by all of our delegates.”

The main presentation of the business session had some key messages for delegates:

• NBC acts as a consortium – it achieves more than any individual member could by acting alone. This provides significant benefits, said Lunt – members get the brands they need, and at prices that allow them to be competitive.

• NBC and NDN provides a network. Members get access to brands at competitive prices and realistic quantities. Suppliers get access to members through one contact point – their brands get to their consumers through a safe and flexible supply chain with reduced credit risk exposure, centralised order to cash facilities, and centralised bulk purchasing, said Lunt.

In this way, the group operates as a fully integrated business for both members and suppliers. Through a combination of messaging techniques such as NBC Express, NDN Offers and the NBC Toolkit, the group now provides more than 7.5 million message opportunities to over 45,000 outlets every year on behalf of suppliers’ brands.

Suppliers that attended the event gave positive feedback.

Paul Lee of Purity Soft Drinks said: “What a great experience shared at the recent NBC Conference in Prague. So well organised with lots of opportunity to link up and network with members and the team at NBC.”

George Edney of Swizzels said: “What a fantastic opportunity to connect with existing customers as well as a number of new members – events like this are invaluable for building relationships with the head office team and the members and to discuss a number of new opportunities that will lead to successful partnerships.”