On the occasion of EuroShop 2005 in Düsseldorf - the world's largest trade fair for capital goods for the retail trade - the European Retail Academy was founded as a European platform for the exchange of information between hands-on retail business and institutional retail research.
The founding members of this unique project on the European retail scene are the European University of Applied Sciences in Brühl (Germany), EHI-EuroHandelsinstitut of Cologne (Germany), medialog Verlag of Mannheim (Germany), the IUH at the University of Applied Sciences in Mainz (Germany), ebs European Business School in Oestrich-Winkel (Germany), the Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France), the Commercial Academy in Bukarest (Rumania), the University of Krakow in Poland, the Enterprise Academy of the Moscow Government (Russia), the South Bohemian University in Ceske Budejovice/Budweis (Czech Republic) and the University of Economics, Prague (Czech Republic) and promoted by Messe Düsseldorf .

On the basis of a survey carried out by EHI among retail businesses, the president of the EuroShop advisory board, Prof. Dr. B. Hallier, sees opportunities for the European Retail Academy to better prepare the new academic generation of commercial scientists for the internationalisation of retail, through an exchange of students and lecturers. As executive member of the Board of Trustees, Prof. Hallier will assume the co-ordination of the international colleges.

Wilhelm Niedergöker, Managing Director of Messe Düsseldorf has said: "The large response of the academic libraries and universities to the EuroShop book, shows that the universities are willing to enter the dialogue. As far as the trade fair business and our exhibitors are concerned, a practice-oriented international education is high on the list of priorities."

The EuroShop trade fair took place from 19 to 23 February, 2005, in Düsseldorf (www.euroshop.de). For further information, please contact:
Prof. Dr. B. Hallier
hallier@ehi.org
Fax: 02 21- 5 79 33 45
www.european-retail-academy.org ( starting from 21.03.05 ! )