At the turn of 2020, Moa Galin, CEO of the clothing store Bigaro, was ready to go big with her new concept for the sustainable retail of the future. Johan Hallberg had just acquired the company Eljest. Shortly afterwards, Covid´19 became the name on everyone's lips and quickly came to redefine the rules of the game for retail and hospitality as well as for its customers. Key issues included understanding the changes and parrying their impact. The two entrepreneurs met in a live conversation on Wednesday where they had the opportunity to reflect on the past year and how they have kept the entrepreneurial spirit alive in different ways.
A prerequisite for tackling the challenges of the past year has been to be proactive and to continuously explore opportunities and adjust their business models.
We have constantly tried new ways to meet the customer and we have explored new places to trade. Through social media, we have reached out to new customers, strengthened relationships with existing ones and stepped up work on our mobile content. This has proved successful - we have been able to convert interaction into sales. My plans to invest and grow the business are still alive and well, and in the meantime we are developing our hosting," says Moa Gahlin, CEO of Bigaro.
While Moa Gahlin represents more traditional trade, Johan Hallberg stands at the interface between trade and hospitality with a combined farm shop, café and a range of experience offerings. For Eljest, the year has primarily involved a focus on the target group in the local area, who have chosen holidays at home rather than more long-distance travel. In the future, however, he wants to be ready to welcome inbound visitors as well. -
Meeting inbound visitors and busloads of tourists will require a different type of production and logistics. To cope with this will require collaboration and smart packaging where together we can offer seamless solutions. For us, this includes working with tour operators and hotels and making it easy for those who come here. As a company, we can set a common vision for how we can develop the tourism industry in Umeå together. Johan Hallberg, CEO of Eljest.
Both companies have participated in eXpressions' Future Retail Lab accelerator programme. An initiative for new entrepreneurs and owner-operated companies in the retail, hospitality and experience sectors with a retail element. The application is now open for companies along the entire coast of Northern Ireland and the surrounding municipalities. In August, 16 new companies will be welcomed to start their development towards new skills and changed business models.
Wednesday's talks were also an important part of an ongoing initiative on the future of sustainable tourism, a project at eXpression Umeå funded by Tillväxtverket. The initiative is primarily about increasing knowledge for companies in tourism, visitor and experience industries with elements of trade. Through dissemination and sharing of experience and knowledge, the project will help companies and other stakeholders to be better equipped in the challenging industry transformation that is underway and is currently being accelerated by the ongoing corona pandemic.
The discussion was moderated by Annakarin Nyberg, eXpression Future Retail Lab Programme Manager and Project Manager for the Sustainable Hospitality Industry of the Future.
Here you can listen to the conversation between the entrepreneurs afterwards.
