Spanish Showcases its Strength at MAPIC 2016

The Spanish presence at MAPIC is increasing at the 22nd edition of a convention that brings together the principal players in international retail. At MAPIC 2016, more exhibitors and brands with a Spanish emphasis will showcase the business opportunities that are offered by our retail market, which is presented at Cannes as the fourth European destination for investment in commercial assets in the first quarter and one of the countries where brands seek to expand their presence.

The allure of Spanish retail will be in the spotlight at the next edition of MAPIC, the most important event of international retail, which is to be held at the Palais des Festivals de Cannes (France) from November 16-18. For three days, more than 8000 professionals and 700 corporate exhibitors in 74 countries will be invited to participate at the convention, conferences and network events that MAPIC offers.

Retailers, promoters and owners of commercial spaces, investors, real estate agencies, architectural studios, operators and franchisers, local authorities will line the corridors of the Palais des Festivals for these three days in order to discover the latest trends of a sector that is undergoing constant transformation, familiarizing themselves with the technological innovations that are occurring in retail and of course, doing business.

Organizers expect more than 2.000 retailers, 2.300 promoters and 400 investment firms to come to Cannes in order to generate business opportunities and find out more about all types of projects, from shopping malls and factory outlets to urban renewal projects based on business, including new commercial formulas and innovating technological developments applied to retail.

Spain in the international retail spotlight

At this major international retail event, Spain is one of the markets that will capture the attention of many operators. Last year, CBRE accounted for the implantation of twenty new international brands in our countries that overwhelmingly opted for Madrid, a city chosen by 60% in order to start their activity in Spain and also for Barcelona that attracted 32% of the new firms.

According to JLL, this year Spain continues being one of the markets which is the objective of the principal operators, although retailers are more and more demanding insofar as locations and characteristics of the premises. In a recent report, a consultancy placed Madrid among the five principal European cities which are the most attractive to international retailers while Barcelona was in ninth position.

On the other hand, investment is overwhelmingly supporting retail and Spanish shopping malls. After a record 2015, our industry has captured 7% of all retail investment in Europe during the first semester. As such, our market has been ranked as the fourth European destination for investment in commercial assets with a volume that the real estate consultancy placed at 1.278 billion as of June.

On the other hand, the activity during this financial year appears greater than initially expected. According to CBRE estimates, it is expected that during the remaining months of 2016, a significant number of operations are to close and may raise the total investment in malls and retail to 2 billion euros.

More Spanish presence at MAPIC

Amid this backdrop, the Spanish market has reinforced its presence at MAPIC with projects and benchmark exhibitors and the expected presence of more than 300 professionals from the Spanish sector. As the MAPIC representation in Spain has announced, this year the convention will have eight exhibitors with a Spanish emphasis in Cannes with new firms that add to the Spanish representation at MAPIC, such as the Aguirre Newman consultancy, The Leisure Way, a company specialized in leisure projects, Flormar, the beauty chain, and the Retail Intelligence TC Group.

“Here at MAPIC we are very pleased about Spanish participation. This year almost 100 Spanish brands will attend the convention and the number of exhibitors has increased from 6 to 8” emphasized Albert Castro, the MAPIC repre-sentative for the Iberian Peninsula.

The increase of Spanish repre-sentation at the convention has also resulted from the fact that once again this year of the Spanish Association of Malls and Commercial Parks (AECC) has offered support to Spanish companies which seek to re-launch their business at such an important international event.

With the assistance of the MAPIC representation in Spain, the trade association of shopping malls has organized the second edition of the Spanish Conference at MAPIC, which under the title of “Spain at the Heart of Europe” seeks to be the benchmark event for all the participants interested in the Spanish market.
The event, moderated by the president of the AECC, Javier Hortelano, will rely on the participation of Luís Lázaro, a managing director of Asset Management at Merlin Properties, José Manuel Llovet, managing director of retail at Grupo Lar, Arturo Martin, CIO of Cinepolis and Stephen Newman, president of Aguirre Newman.

30 new Spanish brands at Cannes

On the other hand, more than 30 new Spanish brands are participating at MAPIC this year for the first time thanks to collaboration agreements signed with the Comertia Association, the company T4 Franquicias and companies specialized in pop-ups, namely Pop Places and Container Custom. Among the new additions, are brands such as El Ganso, Boboli, Macson, Camper, Udon and Sfera, which will participate for the first time at MAPIC in search of new locations.

“Interest for Spanish brands is very high” noted Castro. “A clear example is the new zone, Specialty Leasing Lounge that MAPIC has launched this year and that will have 32 international brands. Thanks to the agreement with Pop Places, 25% of the brands of this pop-up zone will be Spanish”, emphasized the convention repre-sentative in Spain.

This new zone will have brands such as Agustina, Meller, Northweek, Polka Shoes and Ölend. “All offer products of impeccable design and rely on a very strong on-line strategy”, adds Alberto Castro.

Innovation predominates at MAPIC

Innovation and creativity will be the two differentiating factors of this 2016 edition of MAPIC . The digital revolution and the adaption to the connected consumer are two challenges for retail that will be omnipresent in the aisles and conferences of the Cannes convention. “Retailers and promoters in attendance at MAPIC will see for themselves innovative solutions which they have never seen before and which, in some cases, are truly revolutionary”, stated Nathalie Depetro, director of MAPIC.

At MAPIC 2016, participants will be able to see amazing humanoid robots in action, capable of dealing with clients or directing crowds at a shopping mall or formats that use propelled capsules in order to manage customer in-store orders, capable of administering up to 150 orders per hour.

In addition, new Big Data solutions, as applied to business, solutions for shopping malls, virtual reality devices and more innovative formats, which permit the application of new technologies to retail will be presented in a space dubbed MAPIC Trends Hub, with 1000 square meters dedicated to showing the latest industry trends.