Avoid Poland

In its report on 'Emerging Market Priorities for Food Retailers', A.T. Kearney puts Eastern Europe down as the most attractive region for international food retailers. Of the countries in that sub-continent, they'd be advised to turn to in the near future, Poland however comes some way down on the list A.T. Kearney, the international management consulting firm, conducts research using its Global Retail Development Index (GRDI), which ranks emerging countries according to their economic and political risk, their levels of retail saturation and the difference between their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and retail growth.Though China was perceived as the opportunity of the year in the 2002 GRDI, it's now seen as more competitive and a less attractive target. Russia has most appeal for 2003 but the report warns that so did Poland five years ago, and now it's one of the most crowded markets. Flexibility and timingThough retailers tend to rank flexibility and timing as the two least signifi