Having retired at the end of last year, here he talks to Broadway Malyan Director Jorge Ponce about his career, the changing needs of customers and the importance of trusted collaborators.

How long did you work in retail?

When I finished my education in 1981, I started working with José Ángel Rodrigo, one of Spain’s major retail specialist architects, with whom I got involved in my first architectural experiences in Spain, working on projects such as La Vaguada in Madrid.

In 1991, I joined Carrefour and up to 2000 I led and coordinated all of Carrefour’s shopping centre openings in Spain with my team being the interface between our technical collaborators and the strategic project scope of our company.

After being made Director of Architecture in Carrefour Group, I have been involved in setting up projects in a host of different countries such as Brazil, Argentina and Italy as well as being responsible for the renewal and extension of up to 100 hypermarkets and 20 shopping centres in Spain for Carrefour. “The important thing is to unveil new experiences for consumers”

Where did you study?

I initially studied at Escuela de Arquitectura in Madrid, the city where I was born, raised, was married and still work and live. Both my professional and personal life has developed completely in this town.

During our training as architects, retail has no importance at all. It seems it has been left behind from the academic perspective – what’s been your experience in this sense?

The truth is neither architecture schools nor professional colleges offer many opportunities to become specialised in retail architecture, when the reality is that this sector is one of the biggest employers of architects.

Recently the Colegio de Arquitectos de Madrid has organised a monograph promoted by a colleague, but it still remains the belief that retail architecture is not that honourable. There’s still much to be done by all involved in this sector.

Nevertheless, both you and I have discovered our passion for this architecture that incorporates a host of other elements such as economics and client attraction. Aligned with this thought, and after our attendance at this year’s ICSC event in Barcelona, I came to the conclusion that this sector is living a revolution, with incredibly high uncertainty due to the e-commerce explosion.

What is Carrefour doing (a company, as the English say, of bricks-and-mortar) to face this challenge and to adapt to this new scenario?

There is no doubt that the distribution sector is changing all around the world. In Spain, hypermarkets were traditionally the shopping centre anchors but this is changing. The e-commerce arrival has made us rethink the traditional way of doing things.

Carrefour implemented an ambitious process of digital transformation that tries to respond to the new requirements and new habits of this evolving consumer.

Given that we are 60 years old these days, we’d like to know what’s the great value for Carrefour Property in working with Broadway Malyan?

Throughout our work together, it was always clear that you have people capable to adapt to Carrefour’s structure and philosophy, creating a close and direct relationship, till the point of being part of the family.

Second attribute would be the flexibility and capacity to understand Carrefour's needs as promoters: to be keen to endorse the client’s needs.

And, last but not least, the creativity and versatility: to design and facilitate a variety of ad-hoc solutions for the same issue.

I could add many other particularities, such as reactiveness. A promoter always needs external consultants with reactive capacities, a quality we always found in Broadway Malyan.