Events

Toom DIY Fair

In November 2018, toom Baumarkt organised an in-house fair to introduce store managers and employees, which included store clerks , the Purchasing Department and Category Management to new innovations on the DIYmarket by  giving exhibitors the opportunity to present their new products. This event took place for the 18th time in November 2019 and attracted more than 1.000 visitors. A total of around 90 exhibitors presented their new product.

Also RFE represented by Cem Korkmaz, Thomas Drauz and Alexander Doellz joined the fair with their own booth. Among other highlights, 40 new light equipment products, a shower cubicles, two wall mountend, toilets, a new floor covering and a few individual items were shown which were very well received. Especially the new range of TOOM PTA 2.0 which have 19 items ( 18 items of them are VPA certified) was an highlight for the visitors. On top of that, the brand new wood connector assortment , which contains more than 500 different Items, was in the focus on the RFE Booth. We also introduced new TOOM-branded Performance Screws range. No drilling in soft or even hard-wood which is  VPA-tested. Visitors were additionally encouraged to try the goods out on-site on a displayed work bench.

We are looking forward to the next TOOM Baumarkt in-house fair and are proud to be able to contribute a significant part to this event!

Supplier Summit 2018

“Together towards a sustainable future!” – that was the topic under which this year’s RFE supplier summit took place inShanghai on the 13th of September.
Emphasizing sustainability in our summit indicates the growing importance of this topic not only for our company, but also for each and every person on this planet. The day of the supplier summit began with a welcome speech by Mr. Torsten Stau and Mr. Markus Hasse-Pratje. Shortly after, Mr. Torsten Stau, Mr. Markus Hasse-Pratje and Mr. Marcel Weber gave an overview of the successful business year 2018 and also an outlook about the upcoming challenges for our businesses in 2019 and how we will be able to overcome these challenges.
Afterwards, Ms. Maria Schäfer presented the sustainability strategy for Penny and REWE, which is based on three pillars: “Resource Conservation“, “Fairness“ and “Animal Welfare while particularly highlighting those topics that are relevant for REWE Far East. Furthermore, Ms. Schäfer talked about sustainable products, which are handled by RFE pointing out our goal to reduce plastic within our product range.  Along those lines, she introduced specific programs that aim at reducing our negative environmental impact such as our Green Production Program tackling our metal and plastic Producers as well as our Detox Training Program, which is supporting our wet process units to eliminate hazardous chemicals from their production by 2020. Similarly, she also highlighted our newest program, which is focusing on improving working conditions and human rights for our preferred suppliers.
Various workshops were held throughout the afternoon to introduce our suppliers to the latest sustainability related topics within REWE Far East. The following topics were covered in the workshops: “ Green Production Program“ (Patricia von Planta), “ Reduce, Reuse and Recycle of Plastic“  (Maria Schäfer), “ Sustainable Woods and Paper Products / EU Timber Regulation“ (Kai Battenberg) and “ Social Capacity Building Program“ (Christine Alfken). Our workshops had different goals ranging from launching new programs, to educating our partners on existing legislations but also to raise awareness and highlight the necessity of sustainable business practices in order to not only meet our requirements but also to be prepared for the future.Additionally, a panel discussion on Social Compliance was hosted by Mr. Jim Leung of Elevate together with the panelists: Joyce Chau (Network Representative Greater China of amfori), William Wang (Product Director, Letright) and Wendy Wong (CEO, EverFlourish). Jim started out by involving the audience to actively participate by asking them to answer different questions mostly relating to Social Compliance through a mobile app, which was eventually complemented by the panels involvement. The goal of this session was to explore the business case of social compliance and to highlight to the audience that it makes sense, not only from an ethical point of view but also from a cost perspective, to invest in social compliance, in other words in fair and safe working conditions.
The day of the supplier summit ended with a conclusion by Markus Hasse-Pratje. In his speech, Mr. Hasse-Pratje expressed his thanks for the exchange with the suppliers and reminded everyone in the audience, that we are the generation that must acknowledge the universal topic of sustainability. Furthermore, he pointed out, that responsible and collaborative action is necessary in order to provide a healthy and safe planet earth to the generations following after us, as we only have one and therefore it is our responsibility to deal with this topic with the necessary urgency.