Sebastian developed his affinity to the Central & Eastern European region while backpacking through Siberia twenty years ago. After moving more than 15 times across four countries in the region he currently is located in Poland and covers the Central & Eastern European markets at Lebensmittel Zeitung, the leading German weekly business newspaper for the FMCG and food retail sector. His contributions are analysis-driven and based on actual retailer balance sheet data. He also writes for international FMCG magazines and has published more than 100 articles, analyses and interviews in the region.

As independent retail expert with more than 15 years experience in the sector he regularly speaks on industry conferences in the area (e.g. Poland, Romania, Croatia). As a German expat, Sebastian still has his home base near Braunschweig in Germany.

He runs his own retail consultancy, supporting industry clients with market insights that combine strategic perspective, analytical data and practical shop-floor experience. Earlier he supported the German analytics group LZ Retailytics during start-up and was responsible for more than 20 country markets in the CEE, SEE & Baltics region.

Sebastian held various retail sales and project management roles for Schwarz Group and Metro Group in Germany, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. With his market expertise he contributed to organisational build-up and the development of national sales concepts, for big box as well as for discounting formats. On his last retailer position, he supported Kaufland in Poland as Sales Director.

Sebastian obtained his master’s degree in Business Administration (Diplom-Kaufmann) at the University of Passau and also studied at the State University of Management in Moscow.

He is fluent in English, Polish, Russian and German

Background:

2015 – Present	Retail Insight & Analyses
	ALETOS Advisory, Poland
2016 – Present	Senior Retail Analyst, Central & Eastern Europe
	Lebensmittel Zeitung, Germany
2013 – 2014	Sales Director, Regional Director
	Kaufland, Poland
2003 – 2012	Operations Manager, International Sales Team
	METRO Group, Real hypermarkets in Poland, Ukraine, Russia Projects: Flagship store & Regional coach, Moscow, Russia Feasibility study & Country opening, Kiev, Ukraine Géant integration manager, Gdańsk, Poland Store Manager in Poland, Russia
1994 – 1996	Lieutenant of the Reserve, Military Intelligence & Infantry
	German Federal Armed Forces, Diez, Germany