Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to welcome you all to this much anticipated fireside chat event. So we have the opportunity to hear from 2 extraordinary leaders who are in many ways shaping the future of grocery retailing in their own unique and impactful ways. Please join me in welcoming Jack Sinclair, the CEO of Sprouts Farmers Market. Thank you. And Rami Baithi, the CEO of Morrisons in the UK. These extraordinary gentlemen have steered their organizations through a rapidly evolving industry landscape driven by changing consumer preferences and rapidly evolving technologies and the growing importance of sustainability and innovation. Under Jack's leadership, Sprouts Farmers Market has solidified its position as a leader in health conscious retail, focusing on curated natural and organic product offerings, while also pioneering innovative customer engagement strategies. Rami over there has LED Morrisons the transformation of one of the UK's largest grocery chains, emphasizing affordability, local sourcing and a commitment to sustainability and innovation that has resonated deeply with the customers. His forward thinking approach to digital transformation and operational efficiency has positioned Morrison's as a true innovator in the space. S today we will hear first hand from these two gentlemen about how they navigate their challenges, leverage their opportunities and inspire this their teams everyday to redefine what it means to be successful in a highly competitive retail industry. We'll discuss everything from customer centric innovation, their market positioning, differentiating strategies and how they lead their teams on an everyday basis. So without further ado, let's dive into the conversation. And Jack, I'll begin with you and a quick question about your market positioning. Exactly about a year ago at the same menu in NRF last year, you shared Sprouts strategy of positioning itself as a retailer with a curator assortment that caters to health conscious customers. Clearly that approach has resonated not the least because of the fantastic financial performance that we saw and congratulations, thank you. But also by winning the gross of the year award, right. Can you share some of the key SuccessFactors that drove this strategy and what are the next stages of revolution the strategy? Thanks very much, Christian, for having us here today and thanks for everyone. What we've been trying to do is doubling down on what we've talked about last year, the customer and the health conscious customer across the United States. There's probably one in seven or one in eight of the United States population. It's gradually growing. There's more people more interested in what they're eating and why they're eating. This idea of food is medicine and what's in people's food. And now doubling down on fresh produce or doubling down on attribute based products, whether it be keto, paleo, vegan, vegetarian, plant based, gluten free, that whole trend and doubling down on that is something that we've been doing over the course of the last year. We've been refining our format so the smaller 23,000 square foot store where you can see across all of the store and customers can navigate their way through their choices, doubling down on vitamins, doubling down on bulk, doubling down on fresh produce us that focus of products that relate to those target customers is what students in good stead. We've spent a lot of time investing in technology to be getting upstream in terms of replenishment. When you've got over 20% of your sales in fresh produce getting replenishment right. And we've made progress on shrink and a number of other things as we bring some professionalism to our organization and that's been pretty encouraging. So the customer's evolving. We're trying to evolve with the customer and move as fast as as we can within that. Thank you, Jack and Rami, you have implemented significant strategic changes yourself over the past year, listening to customers through roundtables, investing in price camera technology and what have you. How are you positioning Morrisons to stand out in this highly competitive UK market? Yeah, thank you and hello everyone. I joined Morrisons 15 months ago after having LED Carrefour in France for three years as CEO of Carrefour in France and I LED Carrefour in six different countries. So first I needed to understand the market, the British market and actually to, to, to learn about managing a new company that I didn't know in the past. So talking about the customers and with the customers is key actually to understand the market as Jack has mentioned. So talking to customers, we talked to more than 400,000 customers over the last year. We talked to thousands of suppliers. We observed all the competition. So and to to to our colleagues. Morrison's is 110,000 colleagues. Morrison's is vertically integrated company where we produce the product that we sell. Actually in our stores we have 16 factories. So I needed to understand all of this and listening is the best way to do things. So we define the mission, we define the strategy. So the strategy about people, the strategy about market share, the strategy about the EBITDA, the cash, the strategy about our property and the strategy of our, our brand image, how to improve the the brand image of Morrison's and to make it sustainable for, for the future. My main challenges actually, if I may say is once you define the right strategy is how to execute it well. How many strategies are written in the best way but poorly executed, you don't have the outcome of it. So you need the right strategy, but also the right execution from it. And you need to do it fast because the competition now as you know, the UK market is as every market is very competitive with everyone, every retailer is there and you need to do it fast at no cost or minimum of cost. And you, you need to, to execute it well. So I think that the technology, AI and every technology solution is absolutely necessary, is not nice to have, is mandatory. It's it helps actually to ensure execution, it helps to ensure control. It helps to lower the cost and to go fast. All the ingredients you need when you are CEO in the transformation mission. So you can, you can guarantee that the strategy is well executed. We talked about the training, the skills, but now as we as, as we go forward, we, we can't train everybody on everything because in the past people like my generation, we could spend 20 years in the same company. But now is, is less true actually. So you absolutely need to count more on training plus tools, plus technology. This exactly what we started to do including with TCS actually who were the team are are are really doing good job with us and this technology with the training allowed us over the last year to do this change transformation of Morrisons based on the right strategy, right execution, fast and lower cost. Thank you Rami. So listen to your colleagues, listen to your customers, believe in technology, train the people, be clear on your strategy and make sure it's executed well. And pretty much, yeah, Love what Remy said about strategy. How do you execute execution kind of trump strategy sometimes because just making sure you know what you're trying to do and winning the hearts and minds of the team. Sprouts is a business that started relatively young company, but it started with a DNA that we're trying to foster. And when you try and make changes, and we've made quite lot of changes over the last two or three years, changing the focus of the business into this narrow target customer. Winning the hearts and minds of the team has probably been our biggest challenge. And it takes a few years to get people believing. And, and when you start getting, as we have been start getting successes and start winning, then the hearts and minds start to change. But I very much relate to how Remy said, if you've got a strategy, how do you execute? It's one of the biggest challenges. Let me share with you for example, an example customers and as a retailer they ask you for availability whether online, whether in store, the products to be available. Once you've got the right range, the gluten free, the I mean the organic etcetera. When you get the right range, you need to get it available. But availability same to your stores when you have like Morrison's 2000 stores, you need to get the product available. Everybody will agree. But now from agreeing to go to to execution here there is a link that you need to ensure and here when you get the right technology because technology is is an ocean. So when you get the right technology to get this control and this execution well done.  
So you have the strategy, then the transformation plus the execution and only then you have the right result that you can see in your EBITDA, in your cash and you can guarantee the future of your company. Actually, well said. We have a saying the technology is best when you don't see it or feel it. Thank you. 
So moving on from market positioning on to some strategic expansion, market differentiation aspects of your business, maybe, Rami, I'll begin with you. 
Morrisons recently announced plans to open an additional 400 Morrisons daily convenience stores alongside a revamp of the Moore Card loyalty program. And Jack, you have a similar strategy as well in terms of expanding your presence across multiple states with smaller format stores and both of you have a new loyalty program as well. So these common strategies are across your two businesses. We'd love to hear some insights from you in terms of smaller format roles, stores, what roles do they play and loyalty. How do you look at loyalty and the role that loyalty plays in your future competitive differentiation? 
So our strategy is to open one new store per day. So it's 360 stores a year. You say 400. You are absolutely right. This is a number I share with my team to be more, more demanding. We don't, we don't do that for the sake of the proximity. We do that because we observe that in the big cities now the law is getting harder to open big stores and also 30% of people, they live on their own or a couple of people without kids or with some, some animal, animal companies, etcetera. So we need to get closer to the customer. That's why we push online, we push the app, we push the proximity. So the closer to the customer, the better with the right range, the right offer, the right value of the right loyalty. So everything well, well prepared. So our strategy from the convenience store, the proximity stores, it's comes to respond to this concentration in big cities. So today, if you look at the word 80% of the population, it's what in 5-6 big cities. So you need to be there, but it's not easy to open big, big store in the, in the, in the, in downtown. So what you do, you open like very small stores with great value, great offer. This is actually our, our hope, but it's not for the sake of proximity. It's to respond to a customer need where the customer year after year they, they, they, they want to use their time for something else. So they order online and they go to the proximity store to get their product and especially when they live on their own. In contrast with Europe, wherever, apart from Manhattan, wherever lives close together, the American market's much more spread out and it's a very different dynamic and we keep well away from the city centres and there's not that many of them in the US. So our strategy is not a multi format strategy, it's a single format strategy where we've made the stores smaller, we've made them 23,000 square feet as opposed to what we were building which was 3532 thousand square feet. Stores, the principle behind that is you can create the offer for a we're a complimentary retailer as opposed to a competitive retailer. We love to sit alongside anybody. There's nobody we don't want to be right next to because we feel that the offer that we have is so different and, and that allows us to be in a position that we create proposition for the customer and we do it in a format. When you make the stores a bit smaller, they're cheaper to build, they're cheaper to operate, and that allows you to make return faster. And so you're able to get that return from that from a smaller store. And we've made, you know, that's what's 1 of the things that over the past year or so, we're very pleased that that format, the smaller format and low profile. One of the things you can't do in dense markets is you can't restrict your restrict your assortment. So low profile, allowing people to see all the way around the store in a small store is creating this kind of very differentiated format that we have. And the loyalty side of it, Krishnan, that you were talking about, we, we, we think we potentially have a community of people. They're very focused in on what we sell and the passion that people have for the Sprouts brand. People that don't get who we are just don't understand what it is. But the ones that love it really love it. And that's one of the things that we're doubling down on. How do we create a loyalty program that really doesn't do what a lot of the grocery royalty plan plans do in the United States, discount for gas or discount for the customer that's got the program. What we're going to try and do is create a community and learn lessons. So we've we've done a test in Nashville, we've done a test in Tucson, AZ. We've rolled out a number of stores and we're working our way through to get more people scanning so that we've got more data and that technology, the AI technology that we're going to start to see applying across the board. I think this understanding of customers is very important to our business, given we've got that narrow customer profile and that's the kind of we're right in the middle of that at the moment. It hasn't come out the other end yet, but we're very excited about what it's going to do. That's very important, isn't it? The loyalty programs are no longer just about points and discounts and so on, but it's a lot more about gathering the data and being able to push personalized offers, which is where technology plays a big role. 
You have anything to offer on that front, Rami? So loyalty actually for, for Morrison's, it has been a big opportunity for us that we, we work with our teams over the last 15 months and we divided the pie, loyalty pie into 3 segments #1 is of use. So when you have a loyalty program, it must bring compliment, not complaint. It must be as easy to use as the smartphone #2 is generosity. So if really we build what we call loyalty program, you need people to be loyal to you. So you need to be generous with them. Don't ask about return on investment is generosity. It will, you will get the return on investment. But don't don't think from financial point of view, think from entrepreneur point of view. And three is the emotional part, the emotional part with the the connection with the customer. Happy birthday for your kids or we know that you have a nice dog. So what we can do for you or Merry Christmas or whatever. So this personal connection with the customer make also the difference. So I say it's ease of use a 35% of the loyalty program importance. 
And here the technology is very, very important.  So the customer, when they have a coupon, the coupon should work, then they generosity. So something really appealing. And then the the emotional part, which is probably the cherry on the cake, but it's very, very important. So when you get the loyalty 3 segments work together, you will have more customers who will swipe your loyalty card, you have more linked sales to loyalty card and then you will have all the data you may need. And then you you can build a database where you know exactly your customers, you know their behaviour and and you can track their needs and you can address their need before any other competitor.  So here you can make the difference how many retailers have millions or or probably more data, but they don't know how to use it. And I think that the data strategy can lead to address the customer need plus data monetization with what we call the return on investment, the beautiful return on investment when it is done with based on on customer satisfaction. Thank you. So I now love to move on to a topic that's very dear to me personally, but I think that's something that most of us struggle with on everyday basis. Both of you are legends. You have run big businesses in a very, very visionary way. You have a combination of vision, adaptability and innovation through which you've never been called a legend before. That's very nice. What I'd like to understand, and I mean when we were sitting in the green room as well, both of you are talking about how strong the identities are, the sense of belonging. Even companies that were acquired 20 years ago, they still think of themselves as coming from that company, not from the new company and so on. Given these dynamics, what kind of leadership lessons that you have to offer to us as the audience that we can learn from in terms of how do you motivate your teams? How do you drive that sense of belonging and oneness with the purpose of the organization?  
Thank you for your words. I'm not trying to be humble, but I think the real legend is our cashier is our butcher is those people, our guard who really work very, very hard, 8 hours, 9 hours a day with a limited pay, you know, So I think these are really people who face the, the, the customer service every single day. And when people in the head office, they don't do their job well, they need to say sorry, apologies, etcetera. I mean, this is the legend in, in my opinion, and I'm not being humble, I'm being very honest. That's a great point, Rami. I appreciate it. So to, to, to, to answer your question, I've got just a simple pyramid in my mind that I I put always in front of my eyes. This pyramid is 3 floors. The 1st floor is the cultural change because the customer is changing every day. The customer 10 years ago is not the customer today is not going to be the customer five years from now. Who in the room wrote the right strategy in 2019 with what happened 2020? Who thought about the inflation? Who is writing the right strategy with what will happen 2026? Who knows actually. So actually the cultural change is very important and the cultural transformation in your company must be like daily shower everyday and must be based on agility and the fast change because the competition is very fast. Otherwise is you, you can't be sustainable. This floor, for me it, it is worth 65% of the, your company's sustainability. The floor #2 is the skills. So we need to build skills, skilled people, the right people. Diversity in the team is very important. So not to have the right same people as you because otherwise you create only people who will say to you all right, the all day long, but you don't get anywhere. So you need diversity, which the age, gender, region from everywhere as as long as they have some added value and be to be able also to make your team agile with some changes and to keep your team enough in their job long enough in their job.  Don't move them every six months. This is very important. And the third, the third floor for me in this pyramid is about technology, but I put it in the third, which is 10 to 15%. I'm sorry, I can't say it's 90%. So why I put technology on the top of scales and culture? Because when you have the culture, when you have the ability, you know exactly what technology solution you need. And when you know exactly what you need, you can't be mistaken. You can't make a mistake. You put your CapEx, you put your money in the right direction because there is an ocean of solutions.  So technology cannot lead the culture. Culture can lead actually to technology and technology can ensure the great execution with least cost, minimum cost and fast. This exactly what everyone needs in in a very competitive market. So culture, skills and technology and to, to, to watch them everyday to make sure that they work together. Thank you, Rami Jack. Just the heroes in our industry are the people working everyday in the stores. And I think very hard about our guys in Los Angeles right at the moment. The, the commitment that we're seeing from people who are losing their homes and losing, keeping stores open and keeping communities together, it really does inspire everyone what these and they inspire the communities around them. And I'm very proud of the teams and what they're doing in Los Angeles. And every day. We're only as good as the, we're only as good as the, as what's happening in that, in that environment. What, what, what we tried to do in terms of galvanizing our company, First of all, galvanizing around a purpose. We've been very articulate about a purpose in our business, which is help people live and eat better. How can we help people live and eat better? That can be a galvanizing factor for the team. And based on the DNA of the people, the Bony family that started this company in 2002, it's based on that premise of Adna that if people eat a bit better, they'll be a bit healthier and they'll live a little better life. It's, it sounds a bit kind of preachy, but it's kind of that's what we base our business on. And we put three values in place that again, we're related. We, we, we interrogated might be the right word, 5000 of our team members, we've got 35,000 team members and asked them what is it that makes working at Sprouts work for you? And we captured that into 33 values which are now rolled out. And I'd be very disappointed if any of our 35,000 people didn't, wasn't able to articulate to you those values, the values of care, that means care for each other means care for your customers. It means care for your community, It means care for the planet around you. So really capturing care in all its dynamics, loving being different, respecting diversity, respecting people around you, whatever their background, whatever their political views. And that's been an interesting few months in terms of trying to manage that, but respect whatever people's views are, whatever they choose to be and loving being different in terms of the format of the stores, loving being different in what we sell. So the principles behind that and the third principle is own it. You have to deliver whether you're collecting the carts in the parking lot, whether you're running a district, whether you're running a category, whether you're the CEO of the company trying to report, report to the public markets every quarter, whatever it is, take responsibility for what you have to do and what you've got to deliver. So those three values kind of, and you have to live those values as leaders, living those values, They don't work if you if it's very apparent to people that you're not living those values as you go along. So that's the kind of premise upon which we're thinking about leadership. And I've been inspired by our team over the last couple of years. Thank you. I think that resonates very, very deeply because we run a services business. Yeah. And I couldn't agree more with what you said. The real heroes and the heroes are the ones who are on the ground everyday making sure that the systems are up, the replenishments are on time and there is a problem, they are quickly attended and solved. Those are the ones those of us leaders, we are all living on reflected glory of of what those heroes and heroes do. Thank you for that. So as we get pressured by the clock, I think we are down to the last one question and this is about the future of retailing in your respective areas. So do you think that's 22nd?  What excites you the most and what can we expect from your respective companies? The, the, the, the future. We can talk about the future for a long, long time, but I, I think I want to say the daily shower is just to keep in contact with your customers because these customers that need tomorrow are different from today after tomorrow are different from tomorrow. To keep the agility is more about skills, agility and technology, agility, human agility and diversity in your team so you can face the future. So you have your North Star. And once your North Star, your, your, your objective is fixed. You've got your strategy, but this strategy will never be able to execute 100% until you get agility and, and, and this technology agile, this is very important and this actually what we have been able to do with your team in the UK actually and with TCS is this agility. So we, we were hit by external technology incident and in three days, three nights, our teams actually, they were able to rebuild the system from scratch. What we would maybe do in six months, they, they were able to build it back. Because I'm talking about this agility, this working together is about a human. And also, I would say put the customer first, not only a word, but to make it reality, the customer first. It's obvious that in the future the AI is going to be more and more important and for for some generations it's something to be discovered for the new generation is something that comes in the DNA. So we absolutely need as managers of the companies to make them sustainable in the future to select the right solution, AI to how to use them to address our customers need our colleagues a repeat to go fast, less cost and and to ensure the execution so real quick that from a technology point of view, I think there's going to be fairly significant changes in the next couple of years. How we're thinking about the AI revolution. And I'm probably the worst person to talk about it given that it's probably way over my head. But the principles of what can we do with the technology, I think we can understand our customers better and serve them better. I think we can help our team members do a better job right throughout the store helping customers. I think we can do a lot more to help our team members through technology when our customers are asking questions of us, what are the white right ways for us to deal with it, especially in our kind of specialist health space. And I think we can become more efficient in all sorts of parts of our organization. So I think it was going to be changed. Fundamentally though, I don't want it to lose the essence of the importance in retailing of people and how do we make people work better. So understand the customers better, work with our team members better and become more efficient is how would see technology change. Thanks terrific gentlemen. Thank you so very much. Thank you so profound and such a learning experience for me. Thank you for giving so generously of your wisdom and experience. Thank you very much. Thank you.