WASHINGTON, DC — August 25, 2000 – Supermarket executives across Latin America will learn about the implications of change resulting from emerging global retail and e-business trends when the Food Marketing Institute (FMI) hosts a one-day MARKETECHNICS® forum, September 14, 2000, in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

This educational track is featured as a part of Jornadas 2000 — the Argentine Supermarket Industry Convention, which is being sponsored by the Chamber of Argentine Supermarkets (CAS), the Federation of Argentine Supermarkets (FASA), the Latin American Supermarket Association (ALAS), and FMI.

“This builds on FMI’s continuing efforts to bring food retailers in Latin America to the edge of technology-based solutions,” said Tim Hammonds, FMI president and CEO. Comparable to their North American counterparts, Latin American supermarket operators are very interested in the full spectrum of technology applications in food retailing.”

The day’s sessions open with Local Implications of Global Retail Trends, led by Dirk Donath of McKinsey & Company, Inc., which focuses on such topics as overall prospects for financial growth, consumer complexity, new business models, the impact of restructuring, consolidation and entering new businesses; and the implications of e-commerce.

The next session, Electronic Commerce: Achieving the Promise of the ECR Vision, examines the basic principles of ECR and how the emergence of new technologies is rapidly changing business expectations and performance. Pat Walsh, director of industry relations at FMI, is the featured speaker, along with Duncan MacNaughton, General Manager, grocery procurement and merchandising of the H.E. Butt Grocery Company in San Antonio, TX.

A third session, Business to Business Exchanges: The Marketplace of the Future, featuring Arvind Bhambri of the University of Southern California, Graduate School of Business, examines the proliferation of exchanges and the development of e-marketplace business models.

Retailers can then network with each other in a workshop that is geared to professional development. Benchmark Indicators and Results, led by Bianco & Ordoñez Consultants, features information exchange, analyses of case studies, and techniques to identify and measure financial growth.

Rounding out MARKETECHNICS® will be FMI’s SuperTechMart, with Ken Fobes, chairman, Strategy Partners Group, Inc, as facilitator. This showcase in video format is a 40-minute, state-of-the-art, guided tour through simulated retail store environments that demonstrates how technology is integrated between the retail store, consumer home and corporate headquarters. The SuperTechMart video presentation in Spanish is a joint project of FMI, the Latin American Supermarket Association and Coca-Cola.

Last year, over 10,000 people attended the conference and exhibits.

The 500 members of CAS include independent stores, supermarkets, hipermarkets and suppliers in Argentina.

To register for Jornadas 2000, visit the CAS Web site www.cas.com.ar.