Day 2: Quotes from consumer and retail executives

NEW YORK/LONDON | Tue Jun 28, 2011 - Top executives from the consumer and retail industries joined Reuters reporters at the Consumer and Retail summit in New York and London. Here is a list of the top quotes from the event so far:

DEAN MOORE, FINANCE DIRECTOR OF UK OUTSIZE FASHION RETAILER N BROWN (BWNG.L) ON CONSUMERS CUTTING BACK:

"The last thing that seems to be bought at the moment is things that are unseen -- so underwear. Bedding is doing particularly badly too."


TIM STEINER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF OCADO (OCDO.L) ON STEP UP IN ONLINE COMPETITION FROM SUPERMARKET GROUPS:

"We're delighted for them all to throw lots of money taking their profitable store-based customers, putting them into their loss-making online operations and allowing us to steal them."

JOHN CURRIE, CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER, LULULEMON ATHLETICA INC (LLL.TO) (LULU.O)

"We used to dream about being a $1 billion company. We're within spitting distance of that, probably this year. Now we talk about are we a $3 billion, a $5 billion company?"


TONY BARTEL, GAMESTOP CORP (GME.N) PRESIDENT ON THE SHARP DROP IN NINTENDO'S (7974.OS) SHARES AFTER IT INTRODUCED A NEW GAME IN JUNE AT THE E3 EXPO:

"The stock market works more on certainty or uncertainty, whereas the gamer market works more on potential."


NEIL AUSTRIAN, OFFICE DEPOT INC (ODP.N) CHAIRMAN AND CEO, ON SMALL BUSINESS CUSTOMERS:
"The small customer, who is really our core customer -- they don't see the light at the end of the tunnel yet."


MICHAEL NIEMIRA, CHIEF ECONOMIST FOR THE INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF SHOPPING CENTERS ON HIS OUTLOOK:

"Moderate is the word I would use for the remainder of the year... I really don't see us seeing a huge lift in consumer spending. At best we are likely to keep the momentum going.


MARTIN FRANKLIN, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, JARDEN CORP (JAH.N):
"We're opportunists. We'll only buy things if we think the opportunity is there. We're always looking at things. My job is to kiss a lot of frogs to see if there's a prince or princess among the ideas. A lot of it depends on timing and opportunity. We're always ready to react."


JOHN BARBOUR, LEAPFROG ENTERPRISES (LF.N) CEO, ON THE COMPANY'S UPCOMING CHILDREN'S $100 TABLET, CALLED LEAPPAD, WHICH COSTS A FRACTION OF APPLE'S IPAD:

"As I travel across the country I see people worried about how they're going to pay their bills, rather than thinking about 'oh my God, what happens if my kid breaks my iPad.' So to me, I think creating solutions like this is an important part of our business."


MARC COOPER, PETER J SOLOMON MANAGING DIRECTOR:

"We've seen more broken transactions in the last six months than frankly I think I've seen in my career, interestingly. What it speaks to is despite the fact there's an enormous amount of money sitting on the sidelines by the private equity folks, they're cautious. Whenever they see something that has issues, hair that's not clean, they step back."


KENNETH BERLINER, PETER J SOLOMON PRESIDENT, ON THE OPPORTUNITY IN E-COMMERCE:

"It's incredibly huge and it portends for the future. More and more people won't go into brick and mortar stores. You will see more volume of transactions over the next three years involving brick and mortar companies moving into to e-commerce."


ANDREW HIGGINSON, TESCO (TSCO.L) CHIEF EXECUTIVE RETAILING SERVICES, ON THE COMPANY'S MOVE INTO BANKING:

"It has been an incredibly difficult thing to do. I do not think there will be too many new competitors appearing, if our experience is anything to go by."

"You have to have some boundaries to what you define yourself as, and ours is 'Can we sell it to you'?"

IRA KALISH, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMICS AND CONSUMER BUSINESS AT DELOITTE, ON THE RETAIL OUTLOOK:

"I think you might see a kind of bifurcated retail market here (the U.S.) where there will be strength in discount oriented retailers ... and also strength in upscale retailers. The retailers sort of stuck in the middle will be the ones who suffer."

"The UK has a problem and that is sort of a perfect storm of negative events: a fiscal contraction is having a negative impact, the relatively high inflation is tying the hands of the Bank of England so we are not seeing any monetary policy offset, and we have seen a substantial drop in real incomes."

"Just about every country in Europe is now also undergoing a fiscal contraction, especially Germany."


NATALIE BERG, CO-GLOBAL RESEARCH DIRECTOR AT PLANET RETAIL, ON THE OUTLOOK:

"I think purse strings will remain firmly shut. Retailers are having to work really hard to create events and occasions for shoppers to really come out and spend."

"People are still crying out for value. They are happy to shout about bargains. Frugality has really become acceptable for a number of consumers. I do not think that was really the case, certainly in the United States, before the recession."

Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits

(Compiled by Martinne Geller, Jessica Hall, Phil Wahba, Mark Potter and James Davey; Editing by Mike Nesbit)