Multi‐national retailing: A slow advance? Available to Purchase

When the UK went into the EEC, there was quite a lot of speculation that before long we would be seeing the development of truly multi‐national retailing; Fine Fare and Tesco would stalk across Europe, Hema and Hertie would invade Manchester and Cardiff. It hasn't happened like that. To be sure, Marks & Spencer and Mother‐care have made some successful forays, and from the other side of the Channel, GB‐Inno‐BM has made its appearance over here — in partnership, of course, with Sainsbury. Why hasn't it happened? At a recent conference in London on Pan‐European Consumer Advertising and Marketing, organised by Macfariane Conferences, Roderick White offered some answers. In this slightly edited version of the paper he presented at the conference, Roderick White concludes that genuinely multi‐national retailing seems likely to advance only slowly in Europe. He also takes the view that international retail expansion seems unlikely to develop through the large‐scale spread of retail brands on an internationally integrated basis. And the detail of merchandise policy will remain determinedly national.