Nº 2 Partners in Business Magazine

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Issue Nº 2 :: April 2012

R e t a i l Tr e n d s

• Retail Realities • Internationalising Lisbon • Portugal at ExpoReal

• Queen of Cork • Titanic Tragedy

• Freemasons Speak out

2 | Retail Trends

gürtlerbachmann EUROHYPO Motiv: Lissabon Version: Englisch Kontakt: Portugal Format: 210 x 320 + 3 mm DU 02.04.2012 Partners in Business

Leading the way through local expertise.

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Every real estate market is different. As an internationally experienced specialist bank, we are leading the way in finding a route through the labyrinth of commercial real estate financing. With local presence and regional expertise, we develop intelligent solutions.

Portugal: Tel. + 351. 21. 3 51 03 70, [email protected]

a passion for solutions.

Belém Tower, Lisbon

EH_Lissabon_210x320_GB_PartnersBusi_39L.indd 1 28.03.12 12:19

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DIRECTOR | Luis Figueiredo Trindade • [email protected]

COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR | Emi da Silva • [email protected]

CONSULTANT | Catarina Meneses • [email protected]

EDITOR | Chris Graeme • [email protected]

ART & VISUAL DESIGN | André Freire • [email protected]

David Martins • [email protected]

JOURNALIST | Fernanda Pedro

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTOR | David Sampson • [email protected]

OPINIONS | João Torroaes Valente • Valter Alcoforado Barreira • Victoria Fernandes

PHOTOGRAPHY | Chris Graeme • Jorge Correia

PRINTER | Media Consulting, SA – www.mediaconsulting.pt, nº DL: 341143/12

DISTRIBUTION | 3,000 are distributed by hand to leading business people in the Greater Lisbon area, 1.500 copies are distributed by post internationally and 500 copes at the national and international trade fairs, events of the Chambers of Commerce.

• Retail Trends | Issue Nº. 2 – April 2012 Front page illustration credits | Paulo Martins Barata, Promontório DOHA, 2012

Published bi-monthly and owned by Bravespiral – Comunicação, Unip. Lda. LX Factory | Rua Rodrigues Faria, nº. 103, Ed. I 4.02.01 | 1300-501 Lisboa

Registo na ERC nº 126184 | Annual subscription fee: 25 euros / Bi-monthly

www.partnersinbusiness.info

Reproduction of material in this magazine in any form is prohibited without prior written permission from Partners in Business team. The view expressed in this magazine is not necessarily those of the publisher.

04 • Message from the director

06 • Special Feature: Resilience under pressure: How retail is adjusting to new realities

10 • Putting Lisbon on the map: Turning the capital into an international business centre

12 • What’s all the fuss about? Shedding light on the Freemasons in Portugal

20 • Montepio Geral: One Portuguese bank that actually is helping new businesses 24 • Aguirre Newman: An A-Z service from a global real estate player

26 • Sonae Sierra: Shopping centre experts offering retail solutions worldwide

28 • MUNDICENTER: New concepts and strategies for retail 30 • Évora gets a shopping centre and cinemas, at last!

32 • Opinion: How high street shopping can boost national growth 34 • Retail crossing the desert: Adapting and surviving in a harsh climate

38 • From global to local: Embracing fresh possibilities - Adapting to new realities

46 • Expo Real: Proudly promoting Portugal

50 • Opinion: Delivering unique shopping experiences

52 • The Queen of Cork: Turning a traditional product into an iconic fashion statement

INDEX

gürtlerbachmann EUROHYPO Motiv: Lissabon Version: Englisch Kontakt: Portugal Format: 210 x 320 + 3 mm DU 02.04.2012 Partners in Business

Leading the way through local expertise.

gü

rtle

rbac

hm

an

n

Every real estate market is different. As an internationally experienced specialist bank, we are leading the way in finding a route through the labyrinth of commercial real estate financing. With local presence and regional expertise, we develop intelligent solutions.

Portugal: Tel. + 351. 21. 3 51 03 70, [email protected]

a passion for solutions.

Belém Tower, Lisbon

EH_Lissabon_210x320_GB_PartnersBusi_39L.indd 1 28.03.12 12:19

4 | Retail Trends

www.inspirahotels.comRua de Santa Marta, 48 | 1150-297 Lisboa | Portugal

Tel. +351 210 440 900 | Fax +351 210 435 993

Situado em pleno coração da cidade de Lisboa, o Inspira Santa Marta Hotel representa um equilíbrio permanente com a natureza, a pensar nos princípios do Feng Shui e nos 5 elementos: fogo, terra, água, árvore e metal. Será convidado a entrar num mundo onde o design com recurso a materiais amigos do ambiente preenchem o espaço com energia positiva. Os quartos e suites, bem como o espaço envolvente, respiram harmonia e a tranquilidade de um verdadeiro oásis urbano. Uma cortesia aos seus sentidos, é o convite do Inspira Santa Marta Hotel.

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I n the recent past we’ve been living in an illusion created by false economic policies that have encouraged reckless and unsustainable consumerism. The system was awash with cheap financing for all kinds of real estate projects regardless if they were viable or quality investments. Both banks and municipal councils helped and promoted developers at a dizzying rate,

causing an excess in supply.

Now we’re suffering from the serious consequences of those measures. Retail sector professionals are deeply worried about new consumer profiles which have changed in line with the increased cost of living, income reductions and increasing unemployment. Developers, agents and retailers too are moaning because the banks are tightening up their credit concession in supporting investments and the lack of liquidity in the market as a consequence, not to mention the reduced level of incentives for job creation.

In this context, it is disgraceful and incomprehensible that Public Acquisition Offers are being launched in Portugal with the support of banks for big ticket projects from foreign investors. If this capital goes abroad, what then in terms of assets do these projects bring to our economy, particularly in terms of job creation? And what about the good service public banks are offering SMEs and entrepreneurs! After all it’s the SMEs that have contributed so much to the development of our economy, stumping up their own capital without any help from the banks recently.

Faced with a difficult set of economic circumstances in our country, retail industry players are to be congratulated for constantly spotting trends, anticipating change and defining new retail concepts.

It’s not by accident that the shopping centre industry in Portugal is one of the most advanced in Europe. Both at an international and national level, they are places to meet friends, exchange experiences, places for leisure and entertainment - one of the great global trends. They have achieved a level of professionalism, diversity, integration and sophistication that has made them world examples to be followed. Almost every year our management companies and developers in the field receive honorary mentions from the International Council of Shopping Centres (ICSC) in various categories. However new challenges are opportunities are required. If, on the one hand, macro--economic trends point to prudent and essential purchases (instead of impulse buying), then on the other hand a consumer has been identified that is able to buy high priced brands and products when these are tied in with services, values (well-being and sustainability) and gratifying experiences. Multi-channel strategies have been reinforced in the same way as have lifestyle centre concepts that bring consumers closer to products and a personalised service. It’s vital to share experiences in a sector which is dominated by increasingly varied and sophisticated consumers from a wide range of age groups and professional and social profiles (Baby Boomers, the Millennium and Facebook Generation and Silver Shoppers; generations that are multicultural, powerful (in terms of information and technology) and individual. I beleive that our players in the market will once again reinvent retail and successfully adapt it to new consumer profiles. Let’s hear it for value creators!

LET’S HEAR IT FOR VALUE CREATORS!

After all it’s the SMEs that have

contributed so much to the development

of our economy, stumping up their

own capital without any help from the

banks recently.

LUIS FIGUEIREDO TRINDADE | Director, PARTNERS IN BUSINESS

[ E DI TOR IA L ]

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www.inspirahotels.comRua de Santa Marta, 48 | 1150-297 Lisboa | Portugal

Tel. +351 210 440 900 | Fax +351 210 435 993

Situado em pleno coração da cidade de Lisboa, o Inspira Santa Marta Hotel representa um equilíbrio permanente com a natureza, a pensar nos princípios do Feng Shui e nos 5 elementos: fogo, terra, água, árvore e metal. Será convidado a entrar num mundo onde o design com recurso a materiais amigos do ambiente preenchem o espaço com energia positiva. Os quartos e suites, bem como o espaço envolvente, respiram harmonia e a tranquilidade de um verdadeiro oásis urbano. Uma cortesia aos seus sentidos, é o convite do Inspira Santa Marta Hotel.

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6 | Retail Trends

[ SPE C IA L R E P ORT ]

The retail property market in Portugal has been hit by such a combination of adverse factors it is quite surprising that any of the market players are still

left standing. In fact all four major developers in the field are still operating and at least three of them appear to be solvent. Similarly the major supermarket

and retail chains are still in business but their figures cannot hide the effect of the enormous blows the sector has suffered in the last two years.

DAVID SAMPSON | Special Contributor, PARTNERS IN BUSINESS

How the retail sector is adjusting to the new reality?

RESILIENCEUnder Pressure:

T he economic downturn has led to Portugal being put on the European sick list as its debt ballooned above its annual GDP and interest rates rose to unsustainable levels. The problem now is that the cure imposed by the IMF and

the EU in order to reduce the deficit and pay back may be worse than the disease. The government has had to impose heavy increases in taxation and to reduce its expenditure through salary reductions, cuts in holiday and Christmas bonuses for state employees and cancellation of most investment projects, including in particular the TGV railway line from Lisbon to Madrid. The tax increases have included a general rise in income tax and the with-drawal of many allowances, an increase in VAT on many items including rises from 13% to the standard rate of 23% on eating out and an even bigger rise (from 6%) on almost all processed food products and soft drinks, and substantial hikes in local rates (IMI), and electricity, gas and water charges. The end result has

been a fall in consumption of non food products of more than 10% and for the first time ever a fall in the sales of food products in the second half of between 1 and 2 %.

The squeeze on retailers has led to the bankruptcy of the AC Santos supermarket chain which had 21 units in greater Lisbon, and many smaller operators have gone out of business. It has been estimated that at least 4 restaurants and small shops close every day. Carrefour left the Portuguese market some years ago and all companies are looking closely at the profitability of each unit. The French chains Auchan (Jumbo) and E. Leclerc have both closed marginal units.

As turnover has dropped retailers have put pressure on their landlords to reduce rents, and except in the most popular centres landlords have been willing to accept lower rents rather than see shops in their centres standing empty. Particularly in smaller

6 | Retail Trends

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of prime assets such as the BBVA headquarters on the Av. da Liberdade.

Meanwhile local investors did not have the cash flow to buy property. In consequence prime yields for shopping centres rose from 6.5% to 7.75% and for retail parks from 8% to 10%. And even these figures are somewhat academic because there were simply no buyers in the current market conditions.

DEVELOPERS ADJUST TO THE SITUATION The lack of investment has a knock-on effect because developers cannot sell their existing products and do not have the funds or bank finance available to start new developments. Forum Sintra has been a successful new shopping centre for Multi Development which in the normal way they would have been expected to sell quite quickly, but there have been no buyers at least not on the type of yield basis which would make it worth while for Multi to sell. Sonae Sierra also had AlgarveShopping on the market for some time but they have had to keep it and they recently refinanced the centre through a new long term non-recourse mortgage-backed facility with an international bank. Both Multi and Sonae have sold developments in the rest of Europe to raise cash for further projects, and Sonae raised capital in Brazil through an IPO.

Sonae Sierra is the leading developer in Portugal and it announced in its annual report for 2011 that its global occupancy rate grew to 96.8%. It currently has 49 shopping centres in operation, 21 in Portugal and 28 outside namely in Spain (9), Italy (4), Greece (1), Germany (3), Romania (1) and Brazil (10).It is looking to develop shopping centres outside of Portugal in order to counter the downturn in development in its home market, it is providing services to third parties in Romania, Spain, Italy and Germany and it is expanding to Morocco, Algeria and Croatia. The Dutch developer Multi Development has survived the down-turn and weathered the collapse in value of its large investments in Turkey. It recently assured its future operations by agreeing

centres large chains have been able to agree large rent reductions by threatening that otherwise they will close up shop and go away. The crisis has helped sort out the sheep from the goats, and there is still demand for shops in centres which are busy.

CALLING A HALT TO MORE CENTRES

The combination of the financial crisis and the slow down in retailing has brought the boom in shopping centre development to an abrupt halt. When CascaiShopping, the first of the modern out of town centres, opened in 1991 the rate of GLA per one thousand inhabitants in Portugal was well below the European average, but now it is 339 m², compared to the current average of 240 m2/1,000 inhabitants, and the figures from the regions of Lisbon and the Algarve are even above 450 m2/1,000 inhabitants.

Last year the only shopping centres to open were Forum Sintra (Multi Development) and Áqua Portimão (Bouygues Imob./Generali Real Estate Fund). Other formats that either opened or where expanded included Sintra Retail Park (British Land), Liberdade Street Fashion (Regojo Group) and Évora Forum retail park (Madford).

FOREIGN INVESTORS STAY AWAY

The other factor which had perhaps an even greater effect on the real estate market was the spill over into the property market of the collapse of confidence in Portuguese public debt. Investors were not prepared to take the risk of Portugal leaving the Euro or to invest in Portuguese property while the yield on 10 year government bonds was over 12%. So investors stayed away and accounted for only 15% of a much reduced amount of investment in property compared with an average of 46% of much higher amounts over the last 10 years. In fact since April 2010 there has not been one significant foreign institutional investment in Portuguese real estate and even private investors have preferred to wait and see. The only investors were 1 or 2 family trust purchase

Aqua Portimão Forum Sintra

8 | Retail Trends

MAPIC gAthers thousAnds of InternAtIonAl CoMPAnIes, retAIlers, develoPers, Investors And PublIC AuthorItIes under one roof. loCAte PrIMe retAIl sItes, PArtner wIth leAdIng retAIl PlAyers And strIke deAls thAt oPen new terrItorIes And MArkets.

MAPIC MAKES MORE HAPPEN

the in terna t iona l market for re ta i l rea l es ta te - 18th ed i t ion

“It’s the place to have one-on-one discussions and close business. It’s a big opportunity to make deals. ”

Mehmet evenAssistant general Managerfor property development, Zorlu (turkey)

MAPIC 2011 In fIgureS

MAPIC OfferSover 8,000 sqm exhibition area

A dedicated programmeof conferences

business networking events

An extensive, year-roundonline database

www.mapic.com

8,035

2,300

300

110

63

680

840

participants

retailers

new retail brands in 2011

cities & local authorities

countries

exhibiting companies

investors

regISter nOwuntil August 31st : € 920

special price for retailers by June 29 : € 349

210-320 GENERIC GB.indd 1 12/04/12 17:05

[ SPE C IA L R E P ORT ]

“with its banking syndicate an extension for its €850 million corporate facility. The company says that this has created space for the further roll-out of the company’s commercial strategy. It will continue to focus on its core activity as an initiator, designer and developer of new retail and urban centres in close collaboration with investors, and as a full service company which acts for investors, retailers and towns in the area of (re) development, design, research, marketing, leasing and mall management”.

Multi’s policy has been to sell its shopping centres in Portugal while in course of development or after completion and on the investors’ behalf it still manages most of the centres it has developed. Its prospective new development 43,500 m² Forum Setúbal is more than 75% pre let. Cushman and Wakefield have reported that the project has been pre-sold to the Meyer Bergman private equity fund for approximately €120 million but the start of construction has been delayed because of planning problems.

Mundicenter is owned by the construction group Alves Ribeiro and it is the least exposed to debt of the development groups. It has slowed down some of its projects but the company has no problems with cash flow and should soon go ahead with the extension of OeirasParque. The same cannot be said about Chamartin which bought Amorim Imobiliária and the Dolce Vita chain at the top of the market. It nearly sold its largest centre Dolce Vita Tejo, in which ING have a large share, but the sale did not go ahead and the company depends on the goodwill of its bankers. The opening of its latest development, Dolce Vita Braga, where a number of new centres have opened recently, has been much delayed.

SOME UP, SOME DOWN

Smaller developers who entered the market late and were unable to sell their developments when completed, have suffered badly. FDO,

RETAIL – 2011

Retail is one of the real estate market sectors which has been most affected by the current economic and financial situation. During the last decade it was one of the most attractive sectors of the market with growing levels of supply from year to year and with quite high demand, which is proved by the number and quality of shops and centres in Portugal.

Although the sector continues to be professional and of high quality it has not been immune to the current circumstances which have implications at two levels: on the one hand because the difficulty of getting bank finance has stopped new projects going ahead and even the completion of some in course of development, and at the same time because in consequence of the austerity measures, such as the cuts in holiday and Christmas bonuses and the increase in taxation, public and private consumption has fallen and retailers themselves are also pulling back.

This fact is clear from a study of the retail turnover index for the last four years. It has been falling and in December 2011 it reached its lowest level, especially in relation to the sale of non-food products. The consumer confidence index has also fallen over the same period and dropped sharply last year.

INDEX OF RETAIL TURNOVER

Food, drink and tobacco products retail commerce

Non-foodstuffs products retail commerce

Source: INE

Total

the construction company which developed three shopping centres under the Vivaci brand name, recently went into bankruptcy. One sector which is benefiting from the crisis is the outlet sector. Through outlet centres consumers can get access to branded products at substantial discounts. In Portugal supply in scarce and the performance of Freeport outside of Lisbon following its renovation and of Vila do Conde following its rebranding as “the style outlet” has been positive. Neinver announced that footfall in Vila do Conde in February rose by 22% year on year and turnover in its 137 shops by 10%

RETAILING AND URBAN REGENERATION

One of the hopes for developers and retailers over the recent years has been that the government would introduce changes in the law to make it easier to restore old areas, both in regard to individual buildings and whole districts. In many cases throughout Europe large urban rehabilitation programmes have been based on providing modern housing and introducing retail investors as a way of bringing in additional capital.

The basis need in all cases has been an efficient planning process, a reasonable retail market, a possible worthwhile return for investors and laws which ensured reasonable sanctions for breaches of contract. Unfortunately the government has been too timid in its reforms. It has failed to make it legally possible or reasonably profitable to attempt such developments and large inner city areas in Portugal still languish with many building on the verge of collapse.

As the economic pressure increases the government may yet see that encouraging foreign and local investment may be the easiest and most effective way to get the economy moving forward. If local businesses are given such an opportunity the resilience they have shown in the current market conditions will be the basis for a better future.

8 | Retail Trends

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MAPIC gAthers thousAnds of InternAtIonAl CoMPAnIes, retAIlers, develoPers, Investors And PublIC AuthorItIes under one roof. loCAte PrIMe retAIl sItes, PArtner wIth leAdIng retAIl PlAyers And strIke deAls thAt oPen new terrItorIes And MArkets.

MAPIC MAKES MORE HAPPEN

the in terna t iona l market for re ta i l rea l es ta te - 18th ed i t ion

“It’s the place to have one-on-one discussions and close business. It’s a big opportunity to make deals. ”

Mehmet evenAssistant general Managerfor property development, Zorlu (turkey)

MAPIC 2011 In fIgureS

MAPIC OfferSover 8,000 sqm exhibition area

A dedicated programmeof conferences

business networking events

An extensive, year-roundonline database

www.mapic.com

8,035

2,300

300

110

63

680

840

participants

retailers

new retail brands in 2011

cities & local authorities

countries

exhibiting companies

investors

regISter nOwuntil August 31st : € 920

special price for retailers by June 29 : € 349

210-320 GENERIC GB.indd 1 12/04/12 17:05

10 | Retail Trends

”We’re promoting Lisbon as an Atlantic Business Hub

“RUI COELHO | Executive Director, INVEST LISBOA

[ BU SI N E S S I N T E RV I EW ]

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The Challenge of Turning Lisbon into an

International Business CentreCHRIS GRAEME | INTERVIEW

Invest Lisboan aspires to turn Lisbon into an International business and research centre. How do you intend to reach these goals?

We’re promoting Lisbon as an Atlantic Business Hub. In fact we belong to both worlds. On one hand we are a totally integrated European economy enjoying the advantages of a full member of the European Union and, on the other, we share ancient cultural and historical liaisons with Portuguese speaking emergent economies such as Angola, Brasil and Mozambique that turned into today’s increasingly stronger business relationships. For that reason, we believe we can be the perfect place for small and medium European companies targeting the 250 million consumers in the Portuguese speaking market, and also for Angolan and Brazilian companies, as well as Chinese and other countries wishing to penetrate the European market. Lisbon could also be very attractive to set up services and competence centres due to our high quality resources (both labour and infrastructure) at among the most competitive costs in Europe.And we are starting to see something that could be the beginning of a new paradigm: Lisbon is becoming more and more attractive to foreign entrepreneurs. With the development of globalisation and the IT era, talented people don’t need to live in traditional business cities, they can be anywhere they choose. And Lisbon as a lot to offer this them: 220 days of sunshine per year, a central location, low cost houses, high quality infrastructure, warm people, an extremely beautiful city full of culture, just to name a few. Why would people live in very expensive cities, with bad weather and heavy traffic if they can be close to their customers from virtually anywhere in the world? That’s no longer necessary. To achieve our goals we work with several partners, in three areas: international promotion; providing personalised, flexible and free support services to investors and entrepreneurs; and creating additional services for investors and entrepreneurs, such as virtual offices and business incubators. However, considering the competition Lisbon faces, we and our partners must do more to create an appealing investment environment.

It’s true that the fact that you are associated with Lisbon Council and ACL/CCIP and benefit from AICEP’s support enables you to provide some competitive advantages to investors which they wouldn’t ordinarily get in the same way, isn’t it?

Without a doubt. The defined model, a partnership between the Lisbon Council and ACL/CCIP (the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry), with the support of AICEP (the government trade and investment agency) is the right approach for the current challenges, that requires strong partnerships and controlled costs. Having these partners is our biggest advantage allowing us to work as a one-stop shop for investors with projects for Lisbon.

What services are available for companies that want to invest in Lisbon?

A personal, flexible, free and confidential support service that includes consultancy advice from the idea to the setting up of investment projects. Namely providing all the information needed to make investment decisions, help in finding premises, staff, contacts and potential business partners, and also investment opportunities research. We consider ourselves to be facilitators and begin by asking companies what they need to set up their projects, and then fulfil their requirements as quickly as possible. On a different level, together with our partners we have created a Virtual Offices Service, a Workshop Programme and a Business Incubator.

You have developed promotional campaigns in Brazil, Angola and China, among other countries. What feedback have you obtained from these initiatives?

Generally the reaction we have had from potential investors has been positive. They are interested in finding out more and generally are surprised at Lisbon’s advantages, many of which they did not know. This reinforces the need for more and better promotion. We have secured clients from most of the promotional events and some projects have already been set up. However, it is very important to understand that the promotional work, while vital, is not enough, since like in the case of other products and services, no one is going to buy if the real product proves to be below the expectations created by the promotion. So we must offer potential investors not only a very friendly business environment, which means quick and comprehensive answers to all their questions, but also fast licensing procedures, which is not always easy. However, if we want to be proactive, we also need to present investment opportunities that are potentially more profitable than the ones found in other markets.

Following your experience at MIPIM in Cannes, what other international fairs are on your horizon? Is this the best way of attracting international investors to Lisbon?

We will be at the AICEP stand in FILDA - the largest business event in Angola - and we are looking for partners (public entities and private companies) interested in sharing a stand, under the Lisbon brand, at Expo Real in Munich, which is one of the largest trade fair for real estate. This stand could provide very important support for companies to promote their products and services. Lisbon Council and Invest Lisboa will seek to join forces to get greater exposure at a lower cost than each one of these entities could get if they were acting alone. The types of promotional activities we use depend on the markets and the targets that we want to reach. The advantage of these fairs is the concentration of a very considerable number of potential investors from a specific sector in the same place. The disadvantages are the presence of the competition, most of the times, with much more resources and the participation costs.

Invest Lisboa is on a mission – to transform the Portuguese capital into a centre for international business and research. The Executive Director of Invest Lisboa - Rui Coelho, explains how.

12 | Retail Trends

[ PA RT N E R S F E AT U R E ]

In January an little known freemason’s lodge, Mozart, exploded onto the pages of the national press because some of its members were allegedly linked to scandals involving the Portuguese secret services and a company called Ongoing Strategy Investments. It brought a largely poorly-understood group into focus and ignited all kinds of prejudices and preconceptions that the masons were behind crooked deals and political influence in Portugal. But who are the masons and is there some kind of masonic conspiracy to control the country?

CHRIS GRAEME | Feature

Demystifying the MASONS

I n March something unheard of happened in Portugal. A normally reserved society perceived as being secretive agreed to address businessmen

frankly at two luncheons hosted by the American Club of Lisbon.

Both Grand Masters of the nation’s two main freemasonry organisations, Fernando Lima of the Grande Oriente Lusitano (GOL) and José Francisco Moreno, Grande Loja Legal de Portugal (GLLP/GLRP) not only agreed to answer questions from the floor, they also appeared together and posed for photos publicly.

Why did they do it? The answer is simple. To clear up the many preconceived myths and legends that have grown up around international freemasonry over the past 300 years. Persecuted, misunderstood, accused of being involved in every politi-cal and establishment conspiracy from Jack the Ripper to the death of Princess Diana, the leaders of this group of masons

in Portugal - part of an international society that has done so much to promote democracy and civil liberties and helped found the United States of America, republican France and democratic Portugal - explained who the masons are, what they believe in and what they do.

Fernando Lima is a small and unassuming man. Affable and open, he tells the American Club from the outset that its members could ask any questions they liked. Lima explains that masonry is the oldest secular brother-hood in the world; dedicated to perfecting the intellectual, moral and spiritual states of its members, adding that masons treat all men as equal, without making any distinction or division between race, creed, political persuasion, social position or economic situation.

“I joined the masons because it is an insti-tution that defends very noble principles: liberty, freedom of conscience, tolerance, altruism, the search for truth, and a spirituality which from the point of view

of the 21st century covers my needs in terms of universal questions. The fact that I became Grand Master has to do with my membership for many years, and because I believe that I can transmit these noble values,” he says.

Fernando Lima stresses that its many principles are “universal and transversal” but its main principle is freedom of conscience.Altruism too, in its philanthropic and charitable forms, is also a cornerstone of freemasonry. “In the United States of America it really is a philanthropic and philosophic fraternity,” he says. That spirit of fraternity and belonging to a group with shared ideals is something that José Francisco Moreno most likes about being a mason. “We’ve got room for everyone except intolerant people, which is why none of the totalitarian regimes could stand freemasonry,” he explains. “That’s why we were always persecuted by the Nazis, the fascists and the communists and before that the Inquisition and absolute monarchies.”

12 | Retail Trends

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“We also believe in perfecting human morality and fostering a moral elite for good and therefore spread these ideas to society as a whole and strive for society being better than it actually is,” he says, stressing that the ideal of fraternity is nothing “perverse” but has to do with “solidarity, trust, that a man’s ‘word’ isn’t distorted, the principle of always being ready to support someone in need of help: emotionally, materially and in terms of social welfare.

On the question of secrecy, both Fernando Lima and José Francisco Moreno cite historic reasons to do with persecution. “I would like to point out that masonry is not secret; it was clandestine under totalitarian regimes when it was persecuted. “Everybody knows today where we hold our meetings, knows who are leaders are, we’ve even got a museum,” he says. There are 60,000 books on masonry in the United States Congress Library. “Obviously masons, when they hold their meetings, show the same level of reserve that any other institution shows,” explains Lima.

“We have our rules and regulations which mean that any mason that breaks them or behaves illicitly in society’s terms falls under our internal disciplinary procedures. We take care before admitting a potential mason by looking into their past; for example we demand criminal records,” says Fernando Lima. Masons also don’t operate above or outside the law. “When we make a toast at mason diners the first toast is always to the head of state, the second is to respect the State and its laws,” he stresses.

Reserved and modest, José Francisco Moreno also admits that the “secrecy” comes from persecution under totalitarian regimes, except in Cuba where masons are tolerated because they played a role in Cuba’s independence. “Normally, defending human rights as we do threatens some privileges. We’ve often had to defend ourselves against those who attacked the causes we defend. Recently, it’s been heard in Portugal that a mason in public life should declare themselves as such. We don’t agree. This is a

retrograde step that echoes the times of the Estado Novo. If sometimes we are discreet, it’s more out of necessity to defend ourselves than for any sinister reasons,” he points out.

On the question of the recent controversy surrounding the masons and their perceived links with scandals and accusations of corruption and traffic of influence in the Mozart Lodge, José Francisco Moreno points out that he doesn’t like to comment on “particular cases” but “will make an exception.” “Nothing that’s appeared in the media about the Mozart Lodge has anything to do with freemasonry. I think that someone is taking advantage of the situation that someone in this lodge may have behaved in such a way - and I’m not so sure they have – whether politically or in business, that has nothing to do with freemasonry. We are fairly demanding but we are also tolerant; and there is something which we don’t do - we don’t jump ahead of the law courts, and we don’t condemn anyone because of some item of news or other that’s appeared in the press,” he concludes.

We’re not secret. Everybody knows who are leaders are and where we hold out meetings. If we have acted in a clandestine way it’s

because of successive persecutions throughout history.”

”

“

14 | Retail Trends

WHAT IS FREEMASONRY?

Freemasonry is a symbolic fraternity that practices Rites of Initiation and is related to the Enlightenment and its philosophical ideals which swept Europe in the 18th century following the publication of books and treaties by Locke, Hobbes and Rousseau. It emphasises that reason is a major driving force for human improvement and the enhancement for human society. It praises the influence of science and technology in overcoming superstition, ignorance and prejudice in society as well as promoting the human pursuit of happiness. The movement has been perceived as being against religion, particularly Catholicism, but the masons in Portugal say they have nothing against Catholics or women, cripples and negroes, and do not bar them from becoming masons.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY IN PORTUGAL

Freemasonry arrived in Portugal from Britain sometime between 1735 and 1743. It is known that British merchants living in Lisbon founded a masonic lodge around 1727 and was labelled the Lodge of the Heretical Merchants by the Inquisition, suggesting its members were protestant. In 1738 the Pope issued a Papal Bull forbidding Catholics from being masons and encouraging their persecution in Portugal - the first of seven in Portugal until the 1974 Revolution. A lodge was created by a Swiss diamond craftsman in 1741 who was accused of being a heretic, tried and sentenced to hard labour in 1744 until the British ambassador in Lisbon, Lord Charles Compton, secured his release.The then lodge was disbanded in 1755. Between 1760 and 1770 freemasons were left in peace under the Marquis of Pombal and expanded their membership within the army, the aristocracy and intellectual classes.In 1771 with the ascension of Queen Maria I freemasons were once again persecuted and their ideas were considered a threat to the crown and the church. Many lodges in the second half of the 18th century were broken up and masons were forced to disguise their activities from the secret police and authorities. However the Peninsular Wars

and the French occupation led to a resurgence of masonry in Portugal which overall gainedground during the Liberal movement in the first half of the 18th century. It was at this time that a collection of widely dispersed lodges formed a more integrated organisationwhich recognised Portuguese freemasonry as a Grand Lodge in its own right in 1802 under the name Grand Oriente Lusitano under a patent from the Grand Lodge of England. In 1806 the first Portuguese Masonic Constitution was finalised with 199 articles. Since then the freemasons in Portugal have had an influential role in promoting democratic movements and progressive ideals in the country, including the Portuguese Constitution of 1806, the Constitutional Charter of 1826, the Constitutions of 1838 and 1911. However the masons did suffer setbacks during the counter-revolution of 1823 when King João VI condemned the activities of freemasons until the Duke of Saldanha, a mason himself, led a liberal army which helped put the liberal king Pedro IV on the throne in 1833. In the early 20th century the freemasons were allied to the republican movement in Portugal and have been implicated in having links with the Carbonária which assassinated Carlos I in 1908. There was a close interrelationship between the republican leaders and the masons during the 1st Republic from 1910 when a large percentage of the government

were masons. By 1926 when the government was overthrown and a military dictatorship was installed there were about 3,000 masons and 115 lodges and groups in Portugal. With the rise of the dictators in Europe and Salazar in Portugal in 1929 the position of the freemasons was called into question. By 1931-5 with the ascendency of the Church, the Conservatives and the Army masons were once again persecuted; the Republican Guard and the police raided their headquarters and many masons either fled into exile or were forced into operating clandestinely. Masons, who believed in the liberty of the individual, had no place in the Estado Novo which believed sovereignty was founded on the Nation and those sharing the same culture, values, language, religion and traditions. With the 1974 Revolution and the reinstatement of civil liberties and democratic freedoms freemasonry has once again flourished. Portuguese freemasonry today is centred on the Grande Oriente Lusitano, with its ‘palace’ in Grémio Lusitano Street, the Grande Loja de Portugal (The Grand Lodge of Portugal) set up in 1985 and the Regular Grand Lodge of Portugal (GLRP). Today there are around 2,000 freemasons in Portugal (including a Grand Lodge of Freemasons for Ladies (Grande Loja Feminina de Portugal) whose members believe in democracy, friendship, tolerance and dialogue.

[ PA RT N E R S F E AT U R E ]

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16 | Retail Trends

[ PA RT N E R S N EWS ]

SONAE SIERRA Open 11th shopp ing cent re in Braz i l

Portuguese shopping centre specialists Sonae Sierra has opened its 11th shopping, centre Uberlândia Shopping in the Mineiro Triangle region. The project represents a €79 million investment, has 92 % of its GLA rented from a total GLA of 45,300m² with 201 shops, 21 restaurants, a Walmart hypermarket, and 5 latest generation Cinemark cinemas. The new shopping centre will have a positive impact on

EVERT’S Évora Shopping is continuing to attract prestigious retail brands with C&A, Sportzone and Zippy all signed up to the only shopping centre in the Alentejo region which is slated to open in spring 2013. The three flagship brands join Perfumes & Companhia, Multiópticas, Bijou Brigitte, Claire’s, Dara Jewels, Vodafone and Game. Évora Shopping is a €60 million investment covering a GLA of 16,400m² spread out over two floors in a

the economy by creating 2,000 jobs. Uberlândia also has ample parking for 2,400 cars as well as a bike park for 170 bicycles. Fernando Guedes de Oliveira, Sonae Sierra CEO says: “This is the first in a number of new projects that we intend to develop in Brazil where we now have 11 shopping centres and a further 2 under construction in a total €255 million investment.

project with a 300,000 person catchment. Designated a commercial attraction centre for the entire Alentejo region, the project also has 1,200 parking spaces including 500 underground. At Évora Retail Park, opened in November 2011, furniture retailer Moviflor has registered 50,000 visitors in just three months with a total of sales that has placed the store in the national brands Top 10 best stores out of 29 nationwide.

C&A, Sportzone and Zippy Open at Évora Shopping

| 17

Its main goal is to create added value to its partners, by optimising their resources, implementing adequate tools and customizing management models. This company provides expertise through a wide range of hospitality professionals, most of them with international experience, having worked in some of the major worldwide hospitality corporations.

Within the Food & Beverage area, this start-up provides 3 steps of engagement for its Partners: assessment, process & tools implementation and results monitoring. There is also a Special Project umbrella, where the company delivers operational support for one-off events.

As for its Sales Department, the company’s goal is, on the one hand, to closely work with its partners in order to streamline the Sales process, by delivering customised solutions according to each unit’s needs. On the other hand, BOOST – Hospitality Consulting® handles sales representation through professional and committed sales support within designated markets.

[email protected]

Boosting H O T E L

BUSINESSBOOST – Hospitality Consulting® supplies Consulting and Management services in the Food & Beverage and Sales & Marketing areas to Units and Companies operating within the Hospitality Industry.

18 | Retail Trends

Cushman & Wakefield has helped technology company Huawei expand its headquarters at the Art’s Business Centre at Lisbon’s Parque das Nações. The deal was completed by C&W’s the real estate assets management department headed by Bruno Silva. Huawei, a world leader in communications technology has doubled its office occupation area to 1,506m².

_May 16 Lunch debate with Eduardo Catroga, former minister of finance under the Cavaco Silva government.

_May 22 Lunch debate with Álvaro Santos Pereira, minister of the economy.

_July 5th Fundraising dinner in aid of a charita-ble institution to be announced shortly.

Detailed information on these events will be made available shortly on the ICPT site and facebook page. Reservations should be made via e-mail at [email protected] providing the following personal details: name, type of reservation (club member of general public) and contact.

The International Club of Portugal which promotes cultural exchange and brings together Portuguese and foreign citizens from all sections of society, will hold the following events:

Cushman & Wakefield Helps Huawei expand in Lisbon’s Edificio Art’s

International

Club of Portugal F O R T H C O M I N G

E V E N T S

Business Care is a new entrepreneur support platform to help new retail businesses promoted by Dolce Vita Shopping Centres. The initiative brings together the support of a wide number of institutional partners with proven track records in different fields and brands wanting to increase their presence in the national market. The aim is to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit of enterprising new Portuguese businessmen and women who will be able to benefit from free advice, coaching and other necessary support as well as special conditions for retailers wanting to open new shops in Dolce Vita Shopping Centres. In conclusion Business Care is a project boost job creation and the retail and office sectors in Portugal through the help of market leaders.

Dolce Vita launches Business Care platform

Further information available on the site www.docevitashopping.eu

[ PA RT N E R S N EWS ]

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Cushman & Wakefield has placed OHI-OMNI Helicopters in Imopólis’ edifício Adamastor at Lisbon’s Parque das Nações. OHI will occupy the entire 620m² 9th floor of Torre B. Designed by Regino Cruz and completed in 2007, the building has 12,200m² of office space spread out over 2 14-floor towers. Adamastor is currently one of the largest office buildings in Lisbon available for rent in which C&W acts as exclusive leasing agent and manager.

The world leader in office equipment and furniture celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The company is also using this year to reinvent its strategy as a global company, focusing on the office spaces of the future. The company’s success lies in its innovative and user-friendly designs and its strong commitment to working people. Steelcase Portugal is a company specialising in equipment and furniture for offices, hospitals and universities. It has been in the market since 1985.

www.100.steelcase.com

Cushman & Wakefield Find headquarter for OHI-OMNI Helicopters International

Steelcase Celebrates Centenary

Sonae Sierra and ING Real Estate have launched Le Terrazze, its 5th shopping centre in Italy.

SONAE SIERRA Inaugurates f i f th shopping centre in I ta ly

With a €150 million investment, 98% of its GLA already leased, and the creation of 700 new jobs, Le Terrazze has 37 local shop keepers signed up from a total of 102 shops occupying a 38,600m² GLA. The shopping centre is the first in the world to be awarded an Integrated Environment, Health & Safety double certificate (ISO 14001 and OHSAS

18001 during the construction phase.Fernando Guedes de Oliveira, Sonae Sierra CEO says that “Le Terrazze represents another important step in our international expansion” strategy and is Sonae Sierra’s “5th shopping centre in Italy covering a total of 168,000m² GLA, with 18.5 million visitors annually.

20 | Retail Trends


”Montepio supports new companies in various ways, through micro-credit and by helping SMEs. At the moment we’re making new credit worth €1.6 billion available to limited and micro companies and SMEs, particularly export companies.

“ANTÓNIO TOMÁS CORREIA | President, MONTEPIO GERAL

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Montepio: the bank that’s committed to helping

Enterprising New Companies

Why did Montepio get involved in the Startup Lisboa project and what contribution has it made?

Montepio is a mutual company which came about through civil initiative, which is why, as an organisation created by people for people, it is particularly keen on supporting entrepreneurial and innovative projects and supporting self employment because by being constantly involved and contributing to such projects which benefit the country’s development, we too are playing our part and that’s something we feel very strongly about. Startup Lisboa came about as a challenge that was given to us by Lisbon Council which is based on developing a network on company incubators and because of its potential we wanted to be associated with the initiative by providing the premises and supporting the associated refurbishment works involved. This project is good for us, for Lisbon and for the country, which is why we had to be on board.

Do you think that this project will result in a real increase in entrepreneurialism in national bands and companies as well as creating new jobs?

I really do. Furthermore, when Startup Lisboa was inaugurated it already had signed up 15 projects. Startup Lisboa is open to any individuals or existing companies (with a three year activity limit), that want to apply. They can stay in the start-up for up to three years and take advantage of a rare access to specialised entities, public services, investors and financiers. In partnership with Lisbon Council and IAPMEI (a specialised public agency within the Ministry of the Economy, created to provide technical and financial support to enterprises, in particular SMEs), Montepio has created a €500,000 fund set aside to help new companies, which together the backing supplied by mutual guarantee companies, provides the right conditions for new projects to be launched and help put national brands and companies with ambition, creativity and drive on the map. Do you think this initiative could be widened to other cities in Portugal?

The desire and capacity to create innovative businesses crosses

Portuguese banks have been in for some pretty hefty criticism for not lending new companies credit. That can’t be said of Montepio which has set aside € 1,6 billion to help enterprising new start-up firms. Montepio President, António Tomás Correia explains why.

geographic boundaries, which is why there are projects with growth potential all over the country and reasons to think that this great initiative could be broadened to other cities through partnership networks. In Lisbon other start-ups will appear for other specific ends, such as commerce.

Does Montepio have a credit line for start-up companies?

Montepio supports new companies in various ways, through micro-credit and by helping SMEs. At the moment we’re making new credit worth €1.6 billion available to limited and micro companies and SMEs, particularly export companies.

On the subject of existing and new companies, it has to be said SMEs and the big ticket project developers have been complaining about a lack of available finance from banks to help them. What would you say to that?

Considering what I’ve just said about the amount of credit we’re making available, I have to say that’s not the case with Montepio.

Despite the current economic situation not being the best, do you think that companies should consider this scenario as a new opportunity to invest or should they wait instead for better economic and financial times?

Crises are never divorced from opportunities and that is something that enterprising new entrepreneurs should bear in mind. Of course the current economic and financial backdrop doesn’t hold out a great deal of perspectives for domestic and traditional activities, leaving the field of opportunity for new projects directed at exportation, for new consumer profiles, new requirements and new markets. National boundaries cannot be the limits of our ambition and if we live in a world defined by interdependence and globalisation, then we have to project our company activities on a wider scale in Europe and the world. That’s the challenge facing the country in terms of increasing our export turnover and expanding our enterprising entrepreneurs.

CHRIS GRAEME | INTERVIEW

22 | Retail Trends

[ BU SI N E S S OPI N ION ]

T he globalisation of commerce, whether seeking new and more competitive production means or

products to satisfy consumer tastes for ‘international’ goods has brought about a new management model in organisations.

With the globalisation of business and the supply chain, companies have had to develop consistent, coherent and harmonised evaluation methods when controlling suppliers and goods, regardless of in which part of the world they are produced.

Also among customers and regardless of the place goods are marketed and sold, Businesses equally have to build, strengthen and maintain a confident image for its pro ducts and services among its customers irrespective of where the goods are marketed and sold worldwide and despite the possible distances from the company’s international headquarters or the type of contractual relationship with points of sale.

It is within this context, therefore, that international quality standards and audit companies like Bureau Veritas can help organisations in their processes in improving the efficiency of their production processes and helping to build quality performance for the client.

Global companies are those who operate on the international stage and seek to meet the today’s global challenges such as the

RICARDO FERRO | Director Business Development, BUREAU VERITAS

Globalisation and Partners

YOU CAN TRUST

adoption of sustainable growth and social responsibility approaches. They are interested in reducing economic and financial exposure and ensuring quality and their worldwide reputation. To meet this goal they must ensure that their own premises, sites and supply chains and outsourcers are reliable and meet strict international standards or even private schemes.

It is within this context, therefore, that international quality standards and audit companies like Bureau Veritas Portugal can help organisations in their processes in improving the efficiency of their production processes and helping to build quality performance for the client, in order to help it better serve its clients.

That is why Bureau Veritas Portugal has developed innovative and customised certification services to respond to the changing demands of its global clients.

Activities like manufacturing control, inspection at source and pre-shipment inspections can make a difference by ensuring the supply chain meets those quality standards. Other activities too are important such as legal compliance evaluation, mystery clients, lab tests on products and ISO certification - all ways of helping to ensure customer satisfaction.

The concept of specialising in Core activities has meant the creation of a more solid network of suppliers which these days are

called partners. Organisations like Bureau Veritas enable the performance of such networks to be evaluated, permitting an organisation to focus on its key activities and manage its network through independent and consistent evaluations to ensure that possible sources of misalignment that might occur regarding their performance can be avoided.

That’s why an independent partner to evaluate conformity, consistence and compliance, to inspect, check and certify goods, projects, products and systems, according to national and international rules and regulations and produce reports accordingly is so important.

Sectors such as food, construction, energy, industry, services and telecommunications, among others, are ones that already have had internationalisation processes and standards for some years. Using an independent standards evaluation organisation can be used, for example, in checking the different phases in a building’s construction, testing materials, inspecting ships, controlling the environmental impact of an industrial premises, certifying products and systems.

And for the challenges ahead, choosing the right partners that can be trusted is vital for the success and sustainability of business and operations.

Choosing the right partners that can be trusted is vital for the success and sustainability of a business

”

“

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Cempalavras

Bureau Veritas Portugal www.bureauveritas.pt [email protected] 707 200 542

n Inspections n Audits n Tests n Certification n Classification of Ships n Monitoring and Technical Assistance n Training

bureau veritas, your partner for the various stages of your business

Providing a range of services and innovative solutions in the areas of Quality Management, Environment, Health and Safety, regardless of their product sector, assets or business.

24 | Retail Trends

”We exercise a great deal of accuracy and care in what we’re doing. This isn’t merely a theoretical exercise; it’s how our company operates in practice in providing a 360º service to our clients

“PAULO SILVA | Managing Director, AGUIRRE NEWMAN


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Providing a complete property service

From A to ZAguirre Newman Portugal is a property consultant that offers customised, complete and integrated property services in the B2B sector: Investment, Architecture, Property Management, Research & Evaluations and Agency. In the last 10 years it has grown to become one of the key players in the property services sector both in terms of sales turnover and client numbers. The company, which offers an innovative service in developing, carrying out and managing property projects from A-Z for investors, companies and institutions, is now taking its expertise abroad says managing partner, Paulo Silva.

There is no shortage of property consultants for property investors and companies to choose from in the Portuguese market. But there are few that can oversee every step of a project from start to finish like Aguirre Newman can. One of the reasons why is that the company focuses on property in all aspects. Another is that it exercises care, detail and precision in the services it offers. Although Aguirre Newman has different departments, none of them are sealed off tanks. There is a flow of information between them and a level of team spirit and cooperation that is difficult to find these days.

Take Aguirre Newman’s Architecture Department for example. Architecture is not the kind of area normally associated with a property consultant. Yet this is a rapidly expanding area which has captured the trust of the company’s clients because of the quality of the work undertaken; and because its team - which now includes architects Nelson Paciencia and Pedro Lucas - is very strict in terms of meeting deadlines and budgets.

“We’ve got a very professional, all-round team and the benefit of an experience built up over a decade,” says Paulo Silva, who adds that they “know how things need to be done.” Aguirre Newman can evaluate a property with great precision and detail, work out the points of risk and predetermine what could go wrong with a specific property project, thus anticipating any delays. It’s that ability to provide clients with a full and honest picture that sets Aguirre Newman apart from some competitors. “I can honestly say that we’ve never been penalised in terms of building projects and part of that is because we always deliver on time,” he adds.

Looking back on 2011 the year wasn’t easy for any property consultants, but then Aguirre Newman stresses that although it has many operations and different departments, no single one stands out since they all contribute towards making the company grow. This is true in both non-technical (services) and technical areas, particularly in evaluations, an area in which Aguirre Newman enjoyed one of its best years ever. “Our growth was not made at the expense of the great portfolios of property developers, but through the large quantity of mostly

small evaluations that we carried out.” The same is true with Property Management. “We’re not a JP Morgan, Chamartín or Sonae, but our work is recognised and respected by our clients because we deliver a bespoke service with regards to the buildings we manage and they own, maintaining their confidence,” explains Paulo Silva.

Clients are often surprised at the degree of involvement Aguirre Newman has, particularly at a Project Management level. Imagine a company wants to source and adapt an office premises. Aguirre Newman can supervise every step of the project from start to finish using its own partners to carry out interior works or allowing the client the flexibility to use its own trusted service suppliers. “This is our Architectural Department’s asset. We can be involved in a project from A-Z; doing everything necessary for a company to set up in a particular premises. Our clients are often very sophisticated and know what they want and we can offer them exactly that. On the other hand we are transparent and honest. If we think a project isn’t feasible and will throw up too many insurmountable problems we tell the client, even if that means saying ‘no’ to the contract,” says Paulo Silva.

Aguirre Newman is also helping Portuguese companies that are expanding abroad to find premises in Spain and Latin America. “We’re aware that companies are thinking globally and we’re helping firms in Chile, Colombia and Peru,” he says, adding that Aguirre Newman is also working for Brazilian companies, helping them find premises in Portugal. “Portugal provides a window of opportunity for Brazilian companies that need specialised workforces at a relatively cheap price. This has proved an asset for Aguirre Newman which plans to explore this avenue further, while remembering that “solutions exist here in Portugal too.”

Looking forward, the sector needs to create synergies with other companies to overcome imbalances. “We’re preparing our company in this respect. I think finding partners in business will enable us to be more competitive. That’s certainly true of Aguirre Newman whose experience in Portugal and Spain is giving us the edge in the Latin American markets,” he concludes.


26 | Retail Trends

”We have the capacity to correctly define what a cost and an investment with a return are. This is one of the assets that our clients get when working with us.

“JOSÉ FALCÃO MENA | Director, SIERRA SERVICES, EMEA


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Sonae Sierra

A Truly Global Trailblazer

Sonae Sierra is one of a handful of Portuguese companies that has made it big abroad. Internationally recognised as a leader in its field, it is today one of the trailblazers worldwide when it comes to planning, developing, building and managing shopping centres and associated services.

After over 20 years experience in Portugal and other countries in Europe managing its own shopping centre projects, it has proved equally successful at offering service provision to third parties which has enabled Sonae Sierra to reinforce its international growth strategy, helping it to penetrate new markets, widen its knowledge about those markets, create new partnerships, engage in networking, detect new investment opportunities and build on a source of revenue. However José Falcão Mena points out that building partnerships and synergies is a two-way process which equally benefits its partners’ contacts network. “The fact that we either manage or commercialise 23 shopping centres for third parties in the European countries where we are present, as well as being responsible overall for 2 projects in 2 new markets, shows the importance that third-party service provision has as a business for our company,” he explains.

“This is very important when entering new markets and making partnerships with local companies on the ground which enable us to not only get to know the market better but discover further business opportunities, understand cultural differences and bureaucratic and legal processes which are all vital when establishing business relations in a particular country,” he adds.

José Falcão Mena points out that Sonae Sierra is already providing services in other countries. Take Morocco, for instance, where it is developing a project in Casablanca, Marina Shopping; or Croatia, where it is managing the development of the new shopping centre Vrbani, in Zagreb. In Colombia Sonae Sierra has created a service provision company in a partnership, Sierra Central while in Algeria it operates through its partnership Sierra Cevital with Algerian company Cevital where it is already commercialising three shopping centres and will go on to manage them. In the other countries where Sonae Sierra operates, service provision is mainly confined to the management and marketing of shopping centres.

“Actually this is a practice that Sonae Sierra has adopted from the start, whether through Sierra Funds or long-standing partnerships such as the one we have with the United States company DDR – our partner in Brazil,” explains José Falcão Mena.

José Falcão Mena stresses that partnership relations require a greater

José Falcão Mena, Sonae Sierra’s Services Director for Europe, the Middle East and Africa explains why the company has become an international shopping centre specialist through providing a full range of quality bespoke services in four continents.

level of professionalism since the company’s work is also evaluated by the partner. It’s also important to be able to be adaptable, to communicate and negotiate with partners to find win-win solutions for all parties involved and this is something the company sees as a positive challenge which encourages it to constantly improve. “As part of our international growth strategy, we are constantly seeking out opportunities in new and existing markets. We are aware of opportunities that could arise in emerging markets, with particular attention to the Mediterranean basin and South America. We also want to widen our knowledge about Asia, particularly China, which we consider worthwhile analysing in terms of service provision. The Angolan market is also interesting,” he says. A SHOPPING CENTRE SPECIALIST With over 20 years experience and operating today in 11 countries, Sonae Sierra offers an integrated business vision involving the investment, development and management of shopping centres, which enables it to offer an integrated, high-quality range of specialised services for shopping centres right across the board, which also include concept development, market analysis and viability studies, marketing and communication, real estate investment advice, construction and development, coordination (projects and works), and the marketing and commercialisation of third party assets. Service provision developed by the company and based on its acquired knowledge, as well as its innovative approach, enables value creation throughout the entire shelf life of Sonae Sierra’s client assets.

“Our model is focused on value creation in the different phases of a shopping centre which is why we have to always be efficient and effective. It’s true to say that more emphasis has been placed on this in the current economic context, but actually we had already been doing that for years in our shopping centres – from the purchase of the land to the management phase for more than 40 we’ve developed. We have the capacity to correctly define what a cost and an investment with a return are. This is one of the assets that our clients get when working with us,” says José Falcão Mena.

LOOKING TO THE FUTURE For the next five years Sonae Sierra has set itself some big goals - to win more contracts in the development, commercialisation and management of its own shopping centres and those of third parties. José Falcão Mena concludes that it will consolidate its presence in markets where it already operates, especially the most recent (Algeria, Morocco and Colombia) while it plans to penetrate three new markets in the medium term.


28 | Retail Trends

”Today the customer values their money more when out shopping. Deepening our relationships with shopkeepers and service providers is the way to success.

“FERNANDO MUÑOZ DE OLIVEIRA | Executive Director, MUNDICENTER GROUP


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Mundicenter Group

New Management Strategies

Last year was marked a fall in retail consumption and consequently reduced commercial sales and retail receipts. This year studies suggest that dwindling sales will continue. Yet despite the pessimistic outlook, shopping centre management company Mundicenter has come up with a forward-looking strategy to counter the doomsayers. Fernando Muñoz de Oliveira points out that 2011 was a turning point for Portugal when its economy became unsustainable. “Ever since October, when the Government presented its State Budget for 2012, a drastic fall in consumer spending has become obvious,” he says adding that this had an immediate psychological effect on the population which by December had become real in terms of sharp sales decreases.

“We were living beyond our means by buying what we couldn’t afford. Now we’ve got to cut our cloth accordingly, change our lifestyle and stop spending what we can’t afford,” admits Fernando Muñoz de Oliveira who points out that consumer spending had become sur-real, to such an extent that sacrifices have to be made and spending behaviour patterns changed in favour of more sustainable shopping habits. “We have to focus both at the individual and company level to resolve all these problems and carve out a new future”, he admits. “Our strategy for the current situation was traced out some time ago. We’ve redesigned our strategies from top to bottom in many areas: commercial, marketing and operations, so as to cut costs and create greater efficiency. We’ve drawn up new goals in this business which is so competition sensitive; we’re working on changes daily with our service providers and suppliers, particularly with regards to spending, making our business more effective, efficient and profitable,” explains Fernando Muñoz de Oliveira who points out that Mundicenter is working more openly with shop keepers, in partnerships so it can better understand consumers, find out about their spending habits and current needs.

“Today the customer values their money more when out shopping. Deepening our relationships with shopkeepers and service providers is the way to success”.

One positive phenomenon from the crisis has been the success of factory outlets in Portugal. The transformation of Odivelas Park into an Outlet has been viewed by some retail analysts as the industry’s way of getting round the difficulties being felt by the sector, including Fernando Muñoz de Oliveira who admits that there “had been an excess of supply; in some areas”

He says that with its excellent location and access and a direct catchment area which is very price sensitive, Odivelas Parque will be

Fernando Muñoz de Oliveira, Mundicenter Executive Director, explains how the current fall in consumer demand has led to the group designing new management strategies.

a “pioneer for the area” in terms of a mixed shopping centre services format with a clothing and accessories outlet.

“It’s a process that is still underway, but we’ve already got some shops with this format and we’re developing it in a very positive way” he explains. Retail unit rental at the shopping centre has been going well with Mundicenter close to completing the process so that by the end of the year it will have been transformed into mixed shopping centre with an outlet all under a new name and brand: Strada Shopping & Fashion Outlet.

Convenience service factors within cities will be increasingly important in shopping centres while at a retailer level there’s an increasing appetite for short-term ‘pop-up stores’ as well as brand management initiatives whereby brands divulge particular prod-ucts in shopping centre corridors at technology points like Wi-Fi which is being used as a useful tool for retailers to communicate the bargain of the day. “Virtual shops will become a long-term reality as customer shopping habits change. We will continue to see strong competition between the actual shop and the virtual on-line shop,” says Fernando Muñoz de Oliveira.

Making shopping centres attractive also means making them more up to date and relevant. Mundicenter’s Amoreiras Shopping, open for over two decades and one of the most famous in Lisbon, is currently being given an overall maintenance and improvement which should be completed by the end of the first half of the year.

“We’re carrying out maintenance work which involves replacing the ceilings and infrastructure equipment and communications system and other refurbishments works which are necessary to create better conditions for our shop keepers and visitors. Our occupation rate has to maintain close to 100%, even so we’ll continue fostering close relationship with retailers to understand market difficulties better,” he explains.

As to future investments, Mundicentre has defined several projectsincluding the expansion of Oeiras Parque for which planning application has been submitted.

“Although the country has enough shopping centres at the moment we can explore other markets,” he says concluding “New concepts and smaller formats will arise that are more in line with the times. Given that consumer habits in our market are very variable, we’ve got to essentially understand who is investing, who is buying, what they are buying and how to make them embrace change.”

FERNANDA PEDRO | INTERVIEW

30 | Retail Trends

”The rental phase is going well. We’ve got lots of shop keepers interested in the project in-cluding many local retailers

“

MARIA ANTÓNIA PORTOCARRERO | Active Services General Director, IMORENDIMENTO


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Welcomed by retailers, locals and the public alike

Évora Shopping

What will Évora Shopping’s impact be on the region?

Évora Shopping will be the Alentejo’s first shopping centre. Although in Évora, its catchment area covers the entire region. We’re convinced that Évora Shopping will rapidly turn into a major meeting point for the region for this and future generations. With its wide range of shops, services and leisure facilities Évora Shopping will certainly be a reference point of excellence. Évora Shopping, catering for 300,000 people within a 30 minute radius, aims to be a centre of regional attraction at weekends. It’s an important project for the Évora region’s development because it will create 600 jobs. Évora Shopping has an GLA covering 16,500m², spread out over two levels, with a commercial area with 73 shops, 6 kiosks, 2 car parks, spacious air-conditioned walkways, a 14 restaurant food court and cafeterias that will operate jointly with 5 cinemas. The shopping centre is also integrated with the stand alone and the retail park in a total site covering 25,400m². Évora Shopping is set within one of the few areas of Portugal where there is a lack of modern shopping facilities. This real estate investment will fill a gap in the market with an integrated and complementary range of retail facilities which brings together convenient shopping, leisure and wellbeing.

At a time of consumer market contraction and despite Évora Shopping slated to open in 2013, how do you think this new shopping centre will perform?

The project has been well received by the shop keepers, local institutions and the general public. Évora’s existing retail trade consists of small shops set within the medieval walls and stand alone units outside the walls next to the main access roads. Évora Shopping will be a counterpoint to what’s already on offer. It was conceived, designed and marketed to provide large, medium and small sized shops with large and well lit windows to complement what is already available in the town. Évora has a very interesting consumer profile with a large body of students, mainly university (8,000), who are excited at the prospect of cinemas appearing in the city for the first time.

Is the fact that Évora Shopping is also associated with Évora Retail Park and the stand alone run by IZIbuild a decisive factor for the project’s success?

Undoubtedly. Firstly because of size. The shopping centre, IZIbuild stand alone and retail park cover a 25,400m² area. Secondly because the shopping centre will appear in an area which is already a commercial destination and includes the IZIbuild stand alone (3,000m²), operating since 2008, a retail park including Moviflor (3,995m²), Worten (1,745m²) and a small cafeteria (126m²). Évora

Évora Shopping, an EVRET project designed by Broadway Malyan is gearing up for a 2013 opening. Maria Antónia Portocarrero, Imorendimento Active Services, Lda general director explains why there’s such a buzz among retailers and locals alike.

Shopping will add to these retail facilities, having infrastructure in common, like the parking facilities for example.

How is the rental phase going and which brands – apart from those which already have signed up – are likely to come on board Évora Shopping?

The rental phase is going well. We’ve got lots of shop keepers interested in the project including many local retailers. We’ve already signed up C&A, Sportszone and Zippy which will occupy large shops. Perfumes & Companhia and Multiópticas, Bijou Brigitte, Claire’s, Dara’s Jewels, Vodafone and the Grupo Vitaminas, among others, have also secured their space at Évora Shopping. What we’re aiming at for Évora Shopping is a commercial mix to complement what’s already on offer at the Retail Park and will well represent fashion with the main brands and some new attractions. We’re in contact with benchmark national and international brands and the range of shops that are already on board are convinced that Évora Shopping will be a runaway success. On the other hand, in a city where gastronomy is undoubtedly a strong point, our food court will comprise a wide mixture of fast-food for those looking for a quick meal. This project’s other high point are the cinemas, since as people know Évora hasn’t got any and have to travel all the way to Montijo or Lisbon to see a film.

What will visitors find at Évora Shopping that is completely new?

Its architecture is by Broadway Malyan, a company which is a specialist in the shopping centre industry in various parts of the world. For the city of Évora they have created a project which visually looks like an enormous tent covering the entire first floor food court. It should also be stressed that Évora Shopping will be environmentally sustainable particularly in terms of energy and water, in this way creating an innovative brand compared with projects normally developed in Portugal. Will the local economy and national brands be represented at Évora Shopping?

We’ve been contacted by various local businesses with multiband shops within the city walls that want to open up at Évora Shopping with more modern and single brand shops. We’ve got many successful Portuguese brands negotiating with us to open shops at the centre. A project of this size needs international and national brands and local traders. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

FERNANDA PEDRO | INTERVIEW

32 | Retail Trends

High Street Shopping Can Boost National Retail Growth

The main cause of Portugal‘s current real estate crisis is down to the lack of ethics and values which brought about the 2007 financial crisis, including human greed from bankers and politicians, including Portuguese ones.

JOÃO CARVALHO | Executive Director, REGOJO IMOBILIÁRIA

[ PA RT N E R OPI N ION ]

João Carvalho has an MBA in Business Management and is an economist by training with various post graduate degrees. He is a shopping centre and real estate company management specialist with 30 years experience in the real estate industry in Portugal and Brazil. After 6 years with the Regojo Group, João Carvalho returns to Brazil in July to work for Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliários S.A., a leader in the shopping centres industry with around 15 shopping centres.

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E thics has to do with character and character is not just forged with feelings and momentary opportunities

according to the circumstances of a given situation. Human character is based on solid foundations which strengthen a person’s resolve, leading him or her towards doing good and seeking out truth. Credibility, integrity, humility and transparency are some foundations that should be in the working environment. These days the new formula for the successful professional is about being versatile; indeed the market is looking for someone with an ethical and wide profes-sional training. Someone well-connected with an enterprising spirit as well as being well-educated academically, multicultural, useful and having an innovative and multidisciplinary approach, in addition to knowing how to deal with a country’s bureaucracy.

Writing this article once again clear’s my conscience about what I’m trying to do from my side. It’s rather like a bird, which on seeing a fire sweeping through a forest, flies to the nearest lake and carries some drops of water in its beak and drops them on the flames. On being asked if he didn’t think that his actions were completely futile, he argued that he was doing every-thing within his power. He was doing his bit.

Portugal is under attack and inevitably won’t hold out. But that’s not the only

issue: There is a concerted attack against the euro, led by the United States (the dollar’s power can’t be broken), supported by the United Kingdom which closes its ears, and the tacit approval of the BRICs which have holes in their walls which the “enemy” will breach, including China...

Portugal is just one of the weakest links and, consequently, speculators are focusing here before moving on to other sensitive countries like Spain, Ireland, Italy, and even France, and it seems only Germany is safe. The gap between Portugal and its European neighbours has been widening by European standards for over 10 years. A small stagnant economy which is exposed and vulnerable provides the ideal target for such attacks and this isn’t so much about public debt but rather the overall debt of her companies and private individuals in correlation to the country’s GDP.

We’re living in a world of contradictions and not dealing rationally with problems that should be on the agenda. In this respect Germany’s position in understandable (she doesn’t care about the political project but only her own interests).

The word crisis cannot be a barrier for business leaders and developers when defining their business strategies and determining directions business should go.

It should rather be seen as an additional

The word crisis cannot be a barrier for business leaders and developers when defining their business strategies and determining directions business should go. It should rather be seen as an additional factor to be taken into

consideration, an opportunity for growth and redirecting business management.

””

factor to be taken into consideration, an opportunity for growth and redirecting business management.

Despite the difficult economic circumstances, the majority of the main retailers continue to plan for an expansion strategy for their chain of shops and actively look for available sites in the high street. While the place of preference for shop keepers continues to be shopping centres, high street shopping has progressively become a relevant alternative for expansion.

The presence of major national and international brands in high streets is a reflection of how the market has matured. The return to high street shopping is one answer for growth in the national retail market, providing an alternative for retailers who seek to expand their chain of shops. The mature shopping centre sector does not hold out so many opportunities for growth as in the past, which opens the door to high street shopping developments in some places.

High street shopping should, whenever possible and with the necessary adaptations, be similar to the shopping centre development model. The way that shopping centres have developed in the last few decades proves that it’s a successful model and that there are determinant factors for good retail development; namely location, access, tenant-mix, integrated management and marketing campaigns.

34 | Retail Trends

A Desert Allegory[ PA RT N E R OPI N ION ]

Imagine being in the middle of a desert with an imaginary circle drawn around us with an 18 month time radius. In practical terms that means that if we were in the centre of this circle and set out on a journey today, in whatever direction and pace chosen, it would take us 18 months to reach the circle’s boundary.

I n this desert allegory a metaphor can be found which is doubly applicable to our current situation, not just because we are

right in the middle of ‘crossing the desert’ economically speaking, but also because I reckon it will take 18 months to cross this inhospitable landscape independent of the direction and speed being taken.

Or to put it more precisely another way, it will take until September 23rd, 2013, the date laid down by the Troika’s Adjustment Programme which has been accepted by our minister of Finance as the time it will take for Portugal to return to the interna-tional money markets without needing the support of international institutions. Are we Portuguese capable of overcoming the situation and getting back on top? Even if we do succeed, there are no guarantees of success, since it doesn’t just depend on us and this is the fly in the ointment compared to the other crises that we’ve overcome in the past. But it can also go in our favour.

The recent past has been particularly difficult for Portugal. There are scores of reasons for this macro-economically speaking - and we’ve been hearing and reading about them constantly over the past year - but the difficulties are felt more on the tangible plane and it is at this level which directly affects people’s daily lives, when we notice them undeniably affecting strata of the population which prior to this had seemed unaffected by difficulties. This set of economic circumstances, which

ANTÓNIO SAMPAIO DE MATTOS | President, PORTUGUESE SHOPPING CENTRES ASSOCIATION (APCC)

| 35

I am an optimist who believes in efforts founded on ability, competence and imagination.

Only that way will be find the end of the desert

””

is without precedent, is directly interfering with the purchasing power of the Portu-guese, resulting in a reduction in family disposable income with an immediate knock-on effect on internal consumption. This has proved to be one of the factors that have most contributed towards the relative downturn in turnover at shopping centres in Portugal.

Looking at specific indicators, the Bank of Portugal predicts that the actual disposable income of the Portuguese will suffer an 11% accumulated decrease between 2011 and 2013. In turn it is expected that pri-vate consumption will contract 6% in 2012 and 1.8% in 2013. Faced with these pre-dictions and within the projected forecasts for 2011-2013, it becomes objectively hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel for any economic sector.

On top of this can be added the problems of internal and external financing that we are currently experiencing and which are obviously affecting and delaying invest-ment decisions, many of which are vital for our development.

Putting this within the retail property con-text, we know that we are not going to see the kind of new retail inaugurations that this industry enjoyed in the first half of the 1990s and the past decade. One shopping centre is slated to open in the north of the country in 2012 and in 2013 a further two are expected in the Lisbon and south regions. It’s worth noting that in 2011 the GLA (Gross Leasable Area) published by the APCC (Portuguese Shopping Cen-tres Association) was around 110,000m2, corresponding to three large develop-ments; two in the city centres of Braga and Portimão, and a larger one in the Greater

Lisbon area in Sintra. Even so, the shopping centres sector has suffered negative results, in line with the general economic trend, which by the end of 2011 saw an approximate 10% reduction on average in sales compared with the pre-vious year. Another of the key indicators for this industry has behaved in exactly the same way - the levels of footfall at the main national shopping centres. Footfall levels suffered an average reduction close to 8% in 2011 compared with 2010. By comparing these two indicators it can be seen with some accuracy that the average sale per visitor stood at around €13.

This climate has not however prevented professionals in the sector from continu-ing to perform well, striving to always be demanding and efficient. That’s why they have to closely follow developments in the sector, coming up with strategies and find-ing solutions, sometimes thinking outside the box, so as to meet the challenges that are unfortunately facing all sectors up and down the country, and in Europe at a wider level.

A large part of our success as a sector is therefore dependent on the economic performance in various government spheres, such as the success of the austerity measures being implemented by the government which are, in turn, equally dependent on outside factors.

But as referred to previously, it’s not just national industry which is seeks and needs solutions. The next European annual conference of the International Council of Shopping Centres - ICSC, which takes place in Berlin in April, will debate this new challenge facing the sector, one that

has already been referred to as the greatest challenge of past 50 years, with trends and influences changing faster than ever, and with it this industry’s ability to quickly adapt and survive, something that is at the core of real estate activity.

The main theme of this year’s conference is: ‘Is big beautiful?’ which, over the three days conference will question the sustain-ability and capacity of the industry to adapt and recreate large-scale formats. The dynamic aspect of the shopping centre industry is putting pressure on all players in the sector to take a fresh look at their ideas and theories. I do, however, believe that balanced solutions will come out of these troubled times, ones that will leave their mark on the way shopping centres perform in the coming years.

I return to the desert allegory to stress that this travesty that is causing us problems in the short to medium terms, from an economic and social point of view, cannot and must not be accompanied by a ‘desert of ideas.’ Very much on the contrary. It is precisely this lack of economic movement and monetary flow that makes it absolutely fundamental to re-evaluate the models of the past in the light of new knowledge, trends and influences.

I am an optimist by nature and glimpse a very interesting future for this sector. A future based on mixed and integrated models; with technological and service components focused on people who will never stop being at the centre of our activity. But furthermore, I am an optimist who believes in efforts founded on ability, competence and imagination. Only that way will be find the end of the desert.

36 | Retail Trends


U nder the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Portuguese Republic, the European

Central Bank, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund, the Portuguese Government undertook to “define the general principles for voluntary out-of--court restructuring in line with good international practices” (Commitment 2.18). Pursuant to this commitment, the parliamentary majority recently approved Bill no. 39/XII, which introduces the 6th amendment to the Company Insolvency and Recovery Code (CIRE).

Furthermore, this amendment to CIRE takes place within the framework of the Council of Ministers Resolution no. 43/2011, dated October 25th, which sets out a number of guiding principles regarding out-of-court business recovery, (i.e. procedures which enable a company experiencing financial distress to reach an out-of-court settlement with its creditors and which also aim at restructuring the company so it can continue in business rather than file for bankruptcy).

Based on this philosophy, the Government plans to realign the CIRE towards promoting the restructuring of indebted but viable companies, giving priority to continuation of business over liquidation. In this context, the so-called “Insolvency Plan” will now be called “Recovery Plan” whenever it aims at corporate recovery, in order to take away the stigma associated with insolvency and to draw a distinction between those plans that aim at corporate recovery and those that aim at liquidation.

This amendment introduced the much publicised “Special Revitalization Programme” (PER), specifically aimed at companies experiencing financial distress (i.e. companies facing “difficulties in meeting their obligations punctually due to lack of liquidity or credit”) or companies which, though still solvent,

JOÃO TORROAES VALENTE | Lawyer , URÍA MENÉNDEZ - PROENÇA DE CARVALHO

Company Restructuring

A GREEN LIGHT TO SAVE VIABLE COMPANIES?

face imminent bankruptcy.

The PER is an urgent proceeding inspired by the United States Chapter 11 and implements a model already adopted by other European jurisdictions (e.g. Spain, France and the United Kingdom) which aims to prevent troubled but viable companies from going out of business prematurely.

Negotiations between the debtor and its creditors should not last for more than 3 months, during which all recovery proceedings pending against the debtor are suspended.

That way, the debtor is given the time needed to come up with and negotiate a recovery plan within a reasonable period.

This protects the company’s productive capacity and existing jobs. A recovery plan is implemented, debt is rescheduled, the company is recapitalised and, eventually, a new business model, adapted to the prevail-ing market conditions, is hammered out.

The PER is based on simplified and urgent procedures, on short delays for creditors to claim their credits and on short delays for challenging those claims. The court’s role is kept to a minimum (e.g. approval of the recovery plan).

In order to ensure its full effectiveness, a recovery plan approved by a majority of creditors and confirmed by the court is also binding upon those creditors who failed to take part in negotiations.

Failing the approval of a recovery plan, the debtor is either declared bankrupt or not, depending on whether it is insolvent or not.

A further cornerstone of the new PER is the debtor’s duty to inform all parties involved in the process about its actual financial situation. The debtor, along with its managers and directors, will be held jointly and severally liable for losses suffered by creditors due to the supply of

false or misleading information.

In order to raise the fresh capital needed to restructure the debtor company and to offer eventual investors and financial institutions the security required for them to place their capital at the debtor’s disposal, the Law determines that any guarantees agreed with these investors/institutions remain in force even if the debtor is declared bankrupt before the end of this process. Therefore, guarantees offered to these investors/institutions are not revocable in favour of the insolvency estate.

The claims of investors/funders who agree to fund the debtor’s activities during the PER and release capital for its recovery now enjoy preferred status. The law grants them a general privilege on all movables (privilégio mobiliário geral) which takes priority over the workers’ general privilege on all movables. While it may not be enough, it is expected that this additional security will encourage funders/investors to support viable debtors.

So as to avoid abuse, if the parties fail to agree on a recovery plan, the debtor will not be entitled to have recourse to the PER for two years.

The Government expects that this amendment to CIRE, together with the other financial and legal measures recently announced under the so-called “Revitalization Programme”, approved by the Council of Ministers Resolution no. 11/2012, of February 3rd, will create a favourable and stimulating “recovery” environment for economically viable companies, thus avoiding their progressive financial deterioration and the continuation of an inadequate business with liquidation as the only way out.

Among the other measures to be adopted under the “Revitalisation Programme”, it is worth highlighting the amendment to the legal framework applicable to insolvency administrators.

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38 | Retail Trends

THIS IS NOT A CRISIS, THIS IS A NEW PATTERN

The speed in which information travels around the world today creates an interest and motivation for developing new projects and trying out new building design, and is one of the main vehicles for contact between cultures and bringing realities that are very different closer together.

JOÃO LUÍS FERREIRA | Partner • PAULO PERLOIRO | Partner, PROMONTÓRIO

[ PA RT N E R S OPI N ION ]

| 39

A t a time when travelling is easy, both in terms of cost and the availability of routes and connections

distances are becoming shorter and places seem to be getting closer. This goes equally for a resort in a remote and isolated destination as it does for a bustling city - both places which receive, welcome and sustain people’s stay and channel their movements. That’s why architecture and urbanism are omnipresent in our lives, providing the backdrop for all the activities we’re involved in.

Telecommunications has blazed trails, leading to instantly global information on the network - ideas, images and techniques - fostering a need to be part of this global community and therefore defines the desire for a pattern of living. This pattern, that is being exported and circulated all over the world, is materialised in buildings and their uses, in a process that is imitated, enabling a past image to be acknowledged and incorporated in the present, like an iconic painting, making it timeless.

However there are legitimate fears that this globalisation of experience is leading to the unification of forms, image and lifestyles on a world scale: a trend towards a single form. The truth is that these fears do not contribute towards solving the supposed problem. The inertia of historic movements, its acceptance, adoption and practice in terms of community life on a world scale is neither prevented nor determined according to the will of enlightened minds, because it is driven by the force of possibility. The possibility of doing something is what makes something happen.

So, the information that circulates on global networks like the internet is received by the natural desire to be as up-to-date as it is in the rest of the world and the entire world seeks this being up-to-date, being on the front line. To be in the present is to exist.

Crises, such as the one we are going through, are not really crises, but rather a continuity of processes in which we have to re-adapt to new emerging possibilities which when they arise make the former states in which we were in, obsolete.

The dramatic hype that the media creates, and which the political class takes advantage of, conveys the idea that we are in a situation that we can escape from in time. But we can’t. This is the new synthesis, the new situation we’re experiencing; the understanding of this reality is the new premise from which we have to move forward with renewed effort, motivation and spirit to reconstruct our lives.

The internationalisation of companies is apparently motivated by a lack of work in their countries of origin, but the truth is that there is an opportunity to work in and export to different destinations that hadn’t existed before. It’s easier to go and easier to receive those who come. Even without that scapegoat called the ‘crisis’, this is already a reality. It is true that internationalisation initiatives have accelerated, but that happened because it was possible. We did not have to invent anything, we just had to go. There are those that went, those who didn’t go but will end up going, like others who ended up coming where others are leaving. Different reasons and different opportunities. It is this global traffic that will, on the strength of its ability to do so, define melting pots, and with them new profiles of societies, countries and communities.

The activity which most reflects the actual circulation of goods, services and people is trade and, in in its approach to people, the retail. The force of retail, on the consumer’s side, lies in its direct insertion in the micro-economy, in the domestic and personalised economy which, taken on its own, is a drop of water in an ocean, but behaves as a whole because indi-viduals and their interests make up this whole which is compact and uniform in its variety. The other side, that of traders in all businesses: bread, milk, books and cultural events, act as a dynamo for the economy and its activities, being localised, and concrete and intervening or interact-ing with the lives of individual people, and this interaction calls for updates in the law of supply and demand. It is the consumers, informed and up-to-date, who currently define their own needs and force traders to adapt their range of goods to their requirements and preferences. These new demands generate a vast

combination of opportunities in which architecture and urbanism, and the combination of uses add value to real estate communities, generating a possibility of integration with enormous transforming power. Whether in remote and under-developed destinations by Western standards or places where development is needed to regenerate the degradation of urban social life, the exchange of models for rebuilding the community are, in the light of all the available information desired by people, a trend with a great potential to be fulfilled and successfully so.

As much as one can talk about the community mall in an African city with an unbalanced range of uses, but which for some reason led it to become a city where it only needs to reinforce its centrality, introducing attractive factors that facilitate and justify the encouragement of repopulation (hotels, offices, housing, safety), then one can talk about a shopping centre with the purpose of promoting the architectural and urban regeneration of a Nordic city centre by activating new flows that promote urban life and define a new centrality.

Contrary to what appears to be a trend for standardisation, globalisation gives expression and power to local reality and to distinction. In the end there are always people and their communities, their lives and their environments. Existing is being current and being current is being local and singular.

The global reality as to access to information and the local reality as to the retailer’s activity are two generating poles that have in communities the mediation where everything is materialised. For some reason, the international real estate fairs are concentrating increasingly more on presenting cities, large or small, as investment destinations, trumpeting their advantages, their facilities and their strong points that make them different As always, the triumph over the crisis, the source of all perplexities and the excuse for all complaints, lies in the capacity to be modern and up-to-date and understand the current times. After all, it is this that will mould the present and create the near future.

40 | Retail Trends22 | Retail Trends

2012 AMERICAN CLUB AWARDS

2012 AMERICAN CLUB AWARDS

The American Club Awards of 2012 aim to support individuals working on projects to enhance Luso-American ties. This year the American Club has targeted the following subject areas: § IT and innovation for Energy and Telecommunications

§ Corporate responsibility and social marketing

§ IT and innovation for healthcare, including Nutrition, Childhood Obesity and conflict resolution in healthcare

§ Journalism in all media and Web.2

Competition for this award, in the amount of 3,300 US dollars, is open to Portuguese citizens between the ages of 20-35, who must have completed a minimum of two years of undergraduate studies. The award is to be used for travel and lodging expenses within the United States for a 2-4 week visit, and also includes round trip tickets between Portugal and the United States on flights operated by United Airlines, Inc.

REQUIREMENTS

Applicants must submit a one-page proposal with a specific description of the project, accompanied by a one-page Curriculum Vitae, in English by e-mail with the words "2012 Awards" on the subject line. You may use the forms available online at www.americancluboflisbon.com All applications received exceeding this 2-page limit will be immediately disqualified. Applications will be accepted only until midnight on May 4th. Applicants must be fluent in both spoken and written English. The applicants selected for interview will be contacted by May 18th. All other will be contacted before the end of May. Interviews will be conducted in English during the third week in May. The Award must be used before December 10th 2012. Airline ticket booking dates, subject to availability.

For further information please contact: [email protected]

THE ANNUAL AMERICAN CLUB AWARDS ARE OFFERED WITH THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE LUSO-AMERICAN FOUNDATION, FUNDAÇÃO PORTUGAL TELECOM, FUNDAÇÃO EDP, AND WITH FLIGHTS OPERATED BY UNITED AIRLINES INC.

The American Club Awards of 2012 aim to support individuals working on projects to enhance Luso-American ties. This year the American Club has

targeted the following subject areas:

• IT and innovation for Energy and Telecommunications • Corporate responsibility and social marketing

• IT and innovation for healthcare, including Nutrition, Childhood Obesity and conflict resolution in healthcare

• Journalism in all media and Web.2

Competition for this award, in the amount of 3,300 US dollars, is open to Portuguese citizens between the ages of 20-35, who must have completed a minimum of two years of undergraduate studies. The award is to be used for travel and lodging expenses within the United States for a 2-4 week visit, and

also includes round trip tickets between Portugal and the United States on flights operated by United Airlines, Inc.

REQUIREMENTS

Applicants must submit a one-page proposal with a specific description of the project, accompanied by a one-page Curriculum Vitae, in English by e- mail with

the words “2012 Awards” on the subject line.

You may use the forms available online at www.americancluboflisbon.com

• All applications received exceeding this 2-page limit will be immediately disqualified. • Applications will be accepted only until midnight on May 4th. • Applicants must be fluent in both spoken and written English.

• The applicants selected for interview will be contacted by May 18th. All other will be contacted before the end of May.

• Interviews will be conducted in English during the third week in May. • The Award must be used before December 10th 2012.

• Airline ticket booking dates, subject to availability.

THE ANNUAL AMERICAN CLUB AWARDS ARE OFFERED WITH THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE LUSO-AMERICAN FOUNDATION, FUNDAÇÃO

PORTUGAL TELECOM, FUNDAÇÃO EDP, AND WITH FLIGHTS OPERATED BY UNITED AIRLINES INC.

| 41 www.foton.pt • [email protected] • t:+351 214 169 070

42 | Retail Trends

Memories of the

TITANICShip of DreamsSince its doomed maiden voyage in April 1912, the Titanic has become a monumental icon of the 20th century; an image of gross stupidity, sheer negligence and foolish pride.

[ E DI TOR STORY ]

I too, as a young reporter on the regional south London weekly paper, the Greenwich and Charlton News Shopper, was equally captivated and fascinated when I was sent out to cover the first ever exhibition of artefacts brought up from the ill-fated liner which sank on her maiden voyage on April 14th, 1912.

Of all the interviews I have conducted with singers, politicians, artists, sportsmen, and other famous people over my 25-year career as a journalist, the interview I had in 1994 with the last two British surviving

One hundred years ago, almost to the day, the Titanic, the world’s largest and most luxurious

passenger liner sank with the loss of over 1,500 lives after striking an iceberg in the cold waters of the north Atlantic.

No single maritime event has captured the public imagination quite like the Titanic which has been the subject of many films, not least James Cameron’s epic adventure with Leonardo di Caprio and Kate Winslet which returns to the cinema screen this month in 3D.

passengers of the disaster is still fresh in my mind.

Edith Haisman, then a frail, elderly woman of 97, confined to a wheelchair but still with a razor-sharp memory of that night, explained how she “couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about” when the order was given by the stewards to muster on deck shortly before midnight.“I felt so safe on this enormous ship, the last thing I wanted to do was to climb into that little lifeboat and be lowered down all that way into the sea, even of we were told

CHRIS GRAEME | Editor’s Story

42 | Retail Trends

| 43

it was just a drill and only until things got back to normal and we could return.

“I remember my father telling my mother and me that we should put on our life-jackets and something warm as it was very cold on deck. He said we’d hit an ice berg but it wasn’t anything to be worried about and it was only a precaution,” she told me at the opening of the Titanic - The Artefacts Exhibition at the Royal Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

“It’s funny, I’ve lived a long life, married, had a family, lived through two world wars, yet the only thing people seem to want to talk to me about are the events of just one single night in my life,” she chuckled.Edith was 15 years old when she and her parents boarded the RMS Titanic in Southampton for the week voyage in second class in April 1012. “I remember the lights, so many electric lights. Seeing it all lit up from that lifeboat was something extraordinary. You couldn’t imagine that

something so big and beautiful could ever sink,” she said.

Millvina Dean also spoke to me at that exhibition although she was only a two month old baby when the Titanic went down. The youngest passenger on board the ship, she, her brother Bertram Vere, her father Bertram and mother Georgette were on their way to a new life in Witchita, Kansas where her family had a tobacconists which her father would co-own with his cousin. He never arrived.Of course too young to remember, she explained what her mother had told her – that Millvina’s father came to the cabin and told his wife to dress the children and go up on deck. Millvina, her mother and brother were placed in lifeboat Nº 10 and were among the first and few steerage passengers to escape the sinking ship.Edith’s memory, however, was as crystal clear as that starry night. The last memory I had of my father was of him standing on the deck as the lifeboat was lowered and

smiling, saying: - Look after your brother and I’ll see you all when we get to New York.” He never arrived. The rest of the family was picked up by the Carpathia. “There was a lot of hanging around on deck. We waited for what seemed like ages for someone to tell us what to do,” she recalled about that night. “I was put in lifeboat Nº14. We were told it was only temporary as everyone said the ship couldn’t sink. I spent what seemed hours in that lifeboat with nothing to eat or drink.”

She later married and her husband was a keen football fan. She couldn’t bear to go to football matches. The roar of those crowds reminded her of “all those people crying and thrashing about in the water. And then there was silence,” she said.

Both survivors are dead now, Edith Haisman in 1997, two years after the exhibition, and Millvina Dean in 2009. But I will always remember that short ten minutes I had with the last two survivors of the Titanic.

Millvina Dean

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44 | Retail Trends

[ BU SI N E S S R E P ORT ]

PS leader António José Seguro warns that the troika measures while necessary, are being carried out too quickly and strictly, damaging employment and Portugal’s fragile recovery.

1

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António José Seguro at the

International Club of PortugalJORGE CORREIA | Photos

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> LEFT TO RIGHT >

1. ANTÓNIO JOSÉ SEGURO | General Secretary, PS • MANUEL RAMALHO | President, ICPT

2. RENATO VARRIALE | Italian Ambassador to Portugal • MIRKO STEFANOVIC | Servian Ambassador to Portugal

3. FRANCISCO MURTEIRA NABO | President, GALP ENERGIA • MANUEL RAMALHO | President, ICPT

4. EDUARDO GONZÁLEZ LERNER | Cuban Ambassador to Portugal • FERNANDA ALVES TEIXEIRA | CEO, FERNANDA

TEIXEIRA REAL ESTATE • FERNANDO CARDOSO | University Professor Lawyer

5. LUÍS MIRA AMARAL | Presidente, BIC • MANUEL RAMALHO | President, ICPT

6. ANTÓNIO CARMONA RODRIGUES • MANUEL RAMALHO | President, ICPT • NUNO CARNEIRO | Director, FRONTLINE

7. JOSÉ JUNQUEIRO • ANTÓNIO ALMEIDA SANTOS

8. MAHOMED IQBAL • FÁTIMA VALADA FERREIRA • BENVINDA ABELHO

9. ICPT TEAM | LEONEL NEVES • ANTÓNIO RUIVO • PAULA MENDES • ANA PAIS • FERNANDO PEREIRA DE CARVALHO

• ANTÓNIO RAMALHO

9

46 | Retail Trends

”EXPO REAL’s concept has always been that of a Business-to-Business working fair from the start, a fair where specific projects are presented, studied and discussed, and where deals are struck

“TÂNIA MUTERT DE BARROS | Official Portuguese Representative, EXPO REAL 2012


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Strong Portuguese presence expected at

Expo Real 2012

Expo Real, one of the world’s largest commercial property fairs, promises to once again be a major draw in terms of exhibitor and visitor numbers says Tânia Mutert de Barros, the fair’s official Portuguese representative

The 15th International Trade Fair for Commercial Property and Investment is likely to attract a strong presence from movers and shakers in the Portuguese real estate sector, and will boast an entire 70m² stand taken by Invest Lisboa to promote Portugal and Portuguese projects.

“Last year’s EXPO REAL enjoyed a stable number of participants, numbering around 37,000”, says Tânia Mutert de Barros, the of-ficial representative in Portugal for the Munich-based fair which takes place between October 8th and 10th in the Bavarian capital.

The main themes last year centred on the current debt and currency crisis in Europe and its effect on the property markets. At this year’s EXPO REAL lack of finance and investment is likely to continue to be a key theme as well as strategies for bucking the crisis, the importance of the rental markets, urban regeneration and refurbishment and emerging markets and investment opportunities.

In 2011 the largest exhibitor groups were the property project developers and contractors, the economic regions and munici-palities, as well as the property brokering, management and renting sectors with 19, 18 and 16% respectively. These were followed by exhibitors from the real estate investment and project management sectors, each with 12%. In addition to Germany as the largest exhibitor country, the Top 10 exhibitor countries were: Austria, Poland, Holland, Switzerland, Britain, France, the Czech Republic, Luxemburg, Russia, the United States and Spain.

Next year, as in 2011, there are expected to be forums on hospitality, luxury residential tourism, retail real estate, as well as dedicated conferences for the office, residential and retail real estate areas. EXPO REAL’s exhibition space this year will cover 64,000m² in 6 pavilions focusing on industrial and commercial properties and the companies and entities that develop, promote, market and sell them.Tânia Mutert de Barros points out that Expo Real does not include Business-to-Consumer residential property unlike other fairs, like in Spain for example, where many pavilions and stands are dedicated to showcasing apartments, houses and holiday homes aimed at the general public.

Reflecting this, EXPO REAL is only open to professionals while the mandatory registration of visitors ensures exhibitor exposure to a high number of clients who can make the most of investment opportunities, financing, and networking around international projects.

“The participation figures underline the fact that EXPO REAL is a not-to-be-missed platform for the exchange of ideas, trends and innovation and the presentation of projects within the sector, promoting transparency and business opportunities,” explains Tânia Mutert de Barros. “EXPO REAL’s concept has always been that of a Business-to--Business working fair from the start, a fair where specific projects are presented, studied and discussed, and where deals are struck,” she adds.

One of the reasons why EXPO REAL has proved such a successful event over the years is because of its blend of international and regional exhibitors. For example, Barcelona city and region has enjoyed an extremely successful participation at EXPO REAL in recent years.z“The number of collective stands from countries and regions has skyrocketed at EXPO REAL. In 2011 we attracted large collective stands from Austria, Holland, Spain, Luxemburg, France, Switzerland, Great Britain, the United States and Russia,” says Tânia Mutert de Barros.

As usual, EXPO REAL will organise a large number of conferences presented by around 400 distinguished specialists who will cover current trends and market innovations. The conferences, which are an extremely important part of the fair, will take place in specially designated areas within the pavilions over a three-day period and are free to attend. There will also be seminars, workshops, presentations and roundtable discussions in four specially set aside areas.

PORTUGUESE EXHIBITORS

At this year’s EXPO REAL Invest Lisboa – a partnership between the Lisbon Commercial Association (Associação Comercial de Lisboa), the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Câmara do Comércio e Indústria Portuguesa) and Lisbon Council (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa) – has booked a 70m² stand at the fair and is sharing its space and costs with Portuguese companies and other entities. Portuguese exhibitors are mostly concentrated in the residential and tourism property sectors at EXPO REAL where they have often found international business-to-business partners at their first or second visit at the fair. Cases in point include the company Acordo (Bom Sucesso Design Resort) and Camin with its Golden Eagle project.

“With regards to Portuguese companies in the retail sector, this year’s EXPO REAL has signed up Sonae Sierra which has had a long association with the fair and finds it the perfect platform from which to carry out international business,” explains Tânia Mutert de Barros who says that Portuguese exhibitors in 2010 and 2011 included Pure Imagem, Lusort Algarve, not to mention the scores of Portuguese professionals such as developers, consultants, estate agents, banks and property investment funds.

The opening hours for exhibitors at EXPO REAL 2012 are: Monday and Tuesday, 7.30-7pm and Wednesday, 9am-6pm. Visitors: Mondays and Tuesdays, 9am-7pm and Wednesday, 9am-4pm. [email protected], Tel.:+351 226 164 959


48 | Retail Trends

D

VALTER ALCOFORADO BARREIRA | Executive Director, KNOWING COUNTS

Business training skills

YOUR MEMORY’S JUST GREAT!!!

How to remember the names of people you meet at networking activities (lunch-debates, golf courses, seminars, conferences, social events...) and make yours memorable!


o you have problems remembering names? And do you notice others have problems remem-

bering your name too? Do you think it’s important to do so? If you’ve replied yes, then read on and learn an extremely useful skill in many social situations. The problem of not being able to correctly remember other people’s names can make us seem rude and ruin what could be the agreeable part of business relationships.

The problem of people not being able to remember our name and forgetting us or be able to mention us or identify us from a pile of business cards is a common one. If someone doesn’t call us by the right name this won’t help us have a good conversation, and good conversations can lead to good relationships and these in turn can lead to good business deals.

SOLUTION

As in the lion part of networking skills that help professionals, it’s important to have an approach that includes 3 parts: A strategy, a mentality or attitude and the necessary group of skills and techniques.

Strategy: Calling people by their names is vital in building relationships. Traditional methods result in poor results which is why we should be open to learn and use different methods than the usual ones.

Memory: You’re not the only one to have this difficulty (in fact, 95% of people at my workshops, key-notes or classes say they are no good at remembering names. Your memory might be good but perhaps

the way you use it isn’t the best (then after complaining at not being able to remembernames, people immediately say they have “a bad memory”). And the time we dedicate to this important ritual is not in proportion to the same. Professionals are surprised when, during my workshops I ask them to look and see how long a presentation between two people takes with the usual method: around 6 seconds!!! It’s impossible to learn someone’s name and teach yours in 6 seconds. That’s why the first thing to do is to devote a bit more time to the process whenever possible (we’ll see how) Don’t wreck your efforts with negative thoughts: “I can never remember names.” Rather think: “Today I’m going to learn the names of 5 people and will memorise the name of one of them and introduce him to someone”.

THE SET OF SKILLS TO LEARN SOMEONE’S NAME

• Repeat the name you’ve just heard (António Oliveira). Say, “Hello António, very pleased to meet you.”

• Ask or say something about the name. “António is a name I really like, I chose it for my son”. There are ‘1,000’ other possibilities, be creative. The way a name is written is another possibility to explore: “Cátia. Is that with a ‘C’ or with a ‘K’? Whenever you’re writing a name down, make an image in your mind. Since the vast majority of people learn visually, that means you learn better when you visualise something. If the person has a badge or a business card with their name use them too to visually memorise the name. • Ask for the surname separately. “What’s your surname?” That way you’ll hear

the name repeated separately and clearly and not run together with the first name.

TO TEACH YOUR NAME

• Repeat your first name. “Valter. Valter Barreira”.

• Separate the names: Say the names clearly and distinctly, separating the first name by a pause between saying the sur-name. Don’t run the two names together since one of them will seem unintelligible.

• Give a clue or mnemonic. “Valter with V “. With international contacts I usually say “It’s like Walter but with a ‘V’.” If I’m wearing a name badge or hand out my card I point out the ‘V’.

OTHER WAYS OF LEARNING NAMES

• Give a meaning to the name. Attach some meaning to the name (or part of it) so you can visualise a picture with it. Taking the example António Oliveira, I can imagine my son “António” playing in a park under the shade of an ‘olive’ tree.

• Then, associate the image with a characteristic of that person which stands out (and yes, we’ve all got one). For example, in this case, my friend is fairly dark (besides, being a golfer he’s quite tanned) so that I associate this tan with the summer (the time of year when my son ‘António’ was playing in the shadow of the ‘Olive’ tree.

Learning someone’s name and teaching yours is the best beginning to an excellent relationship. So forget the 6 second ritual and begin practising this method. [email protected]

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afc_ad1_v2.pdf 5 11/29/11 4:14 PM

50 | Retail Trends

Delivering unique

Shopping Experiences

[ PA RT N E R S OPI N ION ]

Fantastic,

treated like a

princess!

VICTÓRIA FERNANDES | Sociologist

Shopping is becoming an increasingly leisure-

-orientated and customised experience. Mass

consumption has been consigned to the dustbin

of the past, while bespoke and unique

services have become a ‘must’.

R etail, becoming increasingly complex and diverse, is changing at lightning speed in most developed

as well as emerging economies. Shifting demographics, household downsizing, fierce competition within retailing formats, growth of online retailing, the explosion in customer-leve data availability, austerity and green awareness - among other trends - require that the retail industry quickly adapts existing approaches to keep up with increasingly demanding, individual and savvy consumers. Bespoke retailing with a personalised service means adapting solutions to fit individual differences, expectations and needs.

STAYING AHEAD OF SHIFTING DEMOGRAPHICS

Population changes will continue to have an impact on buying patterns worldwide and should be a key factor for the marketplace. The amassed wealth of the baby boomer generation (born between 1946 and 1964) in mature consumer societies should not be ignored — their estimated annual spending power is more than $US 2 trillion while numbering some 450 million worldwide (MIT AgeLab). Within the next few years, 50% of the EU’s population will be 65+. Baby Boomers will have specific post- -retirement needs, with increased emphasis on health and service demands. Most are committed to feeling and looking younger. As a result they will search for quality of life, experiences, entertainment, enrichment, leisure... This will impact every aspect of retail. The X Generation (1965-80) is significantly smaller than previous and succeeding generations, as is the Y (Millennium or Eco generation). This is the most diverse group and will represent a challenge to traditional retailing.

EMBRACING DIVERSITY AS A MARKET FORCE

Customer needs and expectations are changing in ways that align with their cultural, ethnic and other demographic--related preferences (religion, sexual orientation and physical ability differences). Understanding the many tastes and spending

habits of an increasingly diverse population is critical to growing market share. IKEA in California was better able to position itself for success in the Hispanic consumer market by creating larger, more open spaces and exciting displays. Diverse cultural products will become mainstream in the future.

GROWTH IN SPENDING ON SERVICES

Goods spending will lose ground to services spending. Older generations are becoming more service (‘do it for me’) and experience oriented. Younger generations are more likely to approach goods, services and experiences as an integrated continuum (PWC, Retailing 2015). Overall, consumers are looking for the meaningful (which includes personal services, value and relevance) - and so retailers should need to incorporate services, experiences and value propositions into their concepts. Branding one’s business to deliver a unique selling experience will remain a highly critical success factor.

DRIVING VALUE WITH CUSTOMERS FOCUS

Many retailers are focusing more on consumer needs rather than being product focused. Macy’s, for instance, started My Macy’s initiative to tailor merchandise to individual stores focused on local customer needs and preferences in each location. Retail involves more customer entertainment and interactive experiences. A case in point is Bloomingdale’s campaign ‘Lights, Camera, Fashion’; Zara’s ‘regular merchandise inspires customers to return regularly’ while Nespresso and Delta boutiques are designed to maintain a continuous relationship.

MULTI-CHANNEL IS KEY FOR SUCCESS

US supermarket chain Giant Eagle has embraced the use of social media as a strategy to attract real-world sales. In Europe, luxury brand Burberry managed to buck the trend of slumping sales (22% rise in revenue, 2011); Guitar Center, the world’s largest musical instrument retailer, is giving consumers an ‘endless aisle’, with multiple customised shopping options. The retailers who create the best customer experiences across all channels are in the best position to win.

| 51

This is the latest, highly innovative city guide that captures

Victória World Travel (VWT) Guides may be acquiredonline at amazon.co.uk, fnac.pt, bookhouse.pt,

bertrand.pt or at Portugal`s leading bookstores.At www.victoriaworldtravel.com you

Travel Better & Wisely

52 | Retail Trends

[ SPE C IA L PA RT N E R S I N T E RV I EW ]

Entrepreneur Sandra Correia has had stylish gifts made for Michelle Obama, a collar for Barack Obama’s dog, an entire range of accessories for Madonna and a customised handbag for Angela Merkel. Voted Best European Businesswoman in 2011, the Queen of Cork is poised to hit it big on the international stage. Chris Graeme reports

S andra Correia is surprisingly down-to-earth. We meet at her small but cosy boutique in Lisbon’s Rua das Pedras Negras, a stone’s throw from

the city’s Normanesque cathedral or Sé.

On the shelves are smart tanned hand-bags and clutch bags decorated with blue straps that to all intent and purposes seem like leather. Only it’s not. This is cork. “What I’ve been doing for the past 10 years is nothing new. It was being done as far back as the 1930s but fell out of fashion. I’ve just given an old idea a new lease of life,” admits Sandra Correia modestly. The family firm, Pelcor, based in the Algarve at São Brás de Alportel, used to mainly manufacture champagne and wine corks, roofing materials and flooring tiles and insulation. The bottom fell out of the champagne market in 2000 and, after producing bottle corks for three generations, it was time to come up with Plan B.

“We had a problem that had to be sorted out ‘at home’, so to speak. If we could produce ceilings, wall panels and floor tiles out of cork then why had no one ever thought of producing fashion accessories?” she asked. “We’ve actually got quite a bit of com-

CHRIS GRAEME | Interview

| 53

petition in a market that is fairly large,” admits Sandra Correia, adding that there was a niche market for smart fashion accessories which could be made from Cork which is malleable, flexible, durable, reusable and waterproof.

“My grandfather and father produced bottle corks; I didn’t want to stay in their shadows, but wanted to come up with something new and different, something more feminine. Something that could be utilitarian but fashionable, something that could be worn,” she explains.

Pelcor uses only the best part of the cork tree bark. It has to be smooth and flat, using the part on the inside. The cork is cut into rectangles and stuck together or laminated in a block measuring 1m 40 cm. Then an automatic blade cuts it into very fine sheets. In order to give it strength it then has to be attached to a fabric lining or backing.

China is an interesting market for Pelcor given that 10 per cent of the world’s population lives there, although Europe and Germany has so far proved more fertile and familiar territory. Japan and Singapore are also part of the company’s strategy.“One of my dreams is to eventually

open a store in New York and London” says Sandra Correia who admits she is a dreamer but one who turns them into reality.

Accessories have been presented to Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton (a clutch bag) after the NATO Summit in Lisbon in 2010 - Merkel’s handbag was lined with the colours of the Portuguese flag - a special dog collar was presented to Barack Obama for his family’s Portuguese water dog. She also gave Madonna a line of accessories in 2002 when she came to perform. “That was a real dream of mine; to be able to offer a handbag to Madonna!” she says proudly.

“We’re going to present our new collection in London on May 9th at the Portuguese embassy” she says, adding that her life is so hectic flying around the world and attending trade fairs that she makes it a point to keep the weekends free for herself and her family, and also practices a spot of yoga to keep mind, body and spirit together.

“Moving into the accessories area using cork was actually quite simple. Cork was something I was born into and grew up with and it’s part of my DNA. I had already seen some items made

out of cork, like wallets and folders, but they lacked design and chic, and I wanted to take it to a new level,” she explains.

Sandra Correia is modest about being awarded the Best European Business-woman Award in 2011 by Alain Juppé, the one-time French prime minister and Elisabeth Morin Chartier, the vice-president of the European Commission for Women’s Rights and Sexual Equality.

“It was a pleasant surprise because I hadn’t been expecting it. I hadn’t done anything directly to win the award. Secondly I was surprised because Pelcor hadn’t done anything completely new in terms of ideas. But I suppose it was an award in recognition of my work throughout all these years,” she says.

While admitting to having travelled extensively recently years, this past year she has concentrated more on the Portuguese market – Algarve, Porto and Lisbon. “I tend to spend 2 days in the Algarve, 3 days in Lisbon, and 1 day in Porto. I’m always rushing around which means, on the down side, I have less time to have a personal life, but I do manage to balance things out and find time for my family,” Sandra Correia concludes.

One of my dreams is to eventually open a store in New York and London

””

OF CORK

54 | Retail Trends

The Road to Recovery through Exports Joint chambers of commerce lunch

The President of AICEP Portugal Global, Pedro Reis, says Portugal’s key to recovery lies in finding new markets in Africa, Latin America, China and the Middle East at a luncheon organised by the British--Portuguese Chamber of Commerce with the French, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Finnish, Japanese, South African, Belgium-Luxemburg, Swiss and Germans chambers.

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CHRIS GRAEME | Photos


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> Left to Right >

1. MAX DORES | Business Development, SCHNELLECKE LOGISTICS • SILKE BUSS | Managing Partner, BUSS COMUNICAÇÃO

• HANS-ERHARD REITER | President, SWEDISH PORTUGUESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

2. ISABEL CUDELL | Business Development MOVING ON • LUISA PILÓ | Business Development, MOVING ON

3. GUIDO RADEL | Marketing Director, GERMAN PORTUGUESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE • WOLFGANG KEMPER | KILKEMP

4. ANTÓNIO MARTINS | Executive Director Head of International Business, BANCO BEST • SIMON HEYWOOD | Marketing Manager Shipping

Services, GULF AGENCY COMPANY • CHRIS BARTON | CEO, BRITISH PORTUGUESE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

5. AGOSTINHO DA SILVA | ZIPOR • ANTÓNIO SILVA | Account Manager, BUREAU VAN DIJK

6. MIGUEL GUERREIRO | CFO, SIEMENS • GILBERT VERBEEK | Business Associate Country Manager, CONVERGENCE STRATEGIES

7. PEDRO REIS | President, AICEP • BERNARDO MEYRELLES DO SOUTO | Managing Director Private & Business Clients, DEUTSCHE BANK

8. GONÇALO GASPAR | Subdirector, CAIXA GERAL DE DEPOSITOS • NUNO MARQUES | C.G.D • ISABEL DE PADUA

9. EMILIO SESSA • LUCA SPINIELLO | First secretary • RENATO VARRIALE | Italian Ambassador to Portugal

10. ANA DE LANCASTRE FREITAS | Legal Director, AIR LIQUIDE • RUI LOPES | Project Manager, AIR LIQUIDE

11. PEDRO BASTOS | Manager, NUTRIFRESCO • LOUISE KAMBER | CLOCHE RECEPTIONS DESIGN • GREGOR ZEMP | Secretary General,

SWISS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE

56 | Retail Trends

Finance minister Vítor Gaspar addresses business leaders at a dinner conference co-hosted by the American Club of Lisbon and the American Chamber of Com-merce in Portugal in May, calling on the EU to create stable conditions for the Euro during Portugal’s financial readjustment and structural reforms and expressing confi-dence in Spain’s banking system.

Grand Masters of the Portuguese Freemasons at the

Vítor Gaspar

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> LEFT TO RIGHT >

1. LEONEL PEREIRA | Michelin Star Chef, SHERATON • ANNE TAYLOR | President, AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON

2. JOSÉ FRANCISCO MORENO | GLLP/GLRP • ANNE TAYLOR | President, AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON • FERNANDO LIMA | GOL

3. CRISTINA FALCÃO • ALEXANDRA ATHAYDE | Deputy Director, BANQUE PRIVÉE EDMOND ROTHSCHILD EUROPE • NUNO FERREIRA ANTUNES | Consultant

4. JOSÉ MIGUEL CERQUEIRA | President, CASA CARVALHO CEQUEIRA • JOHN SCOTT JOHNSON | Treasurer, AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON

5. GREGOR ZEMP | General Secretary, SWISS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE • SILKE BUSS | Managing Partner, BUSS COMUNICAÇÃO

6. GUILLERMO NAVARRO | BBVA • HUGO BATALHA | Senior Partner, KEY BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

7. LESLIE RODRIGUES CARVALHO | Junior Partner, SOC. REBELO DE SOUSA ADVOGADOS • CARLOS MARQUES • FILIPE CATARINO

8. ANTÓNIO AGRELA | Partner, SQIMI • MARIANA ABRANTES DE SOUSA | Board Member, AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON

9. ALEXANDRA FIGUEIREDO | Hostess • CRISTINA MARTINS | P.A., AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON • SARA ALEIXO | Hostess

10. JOSÉ SÁ CARNEIRO | FLAD • CHARLES BUCHANAN | AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON • SOFIA RAMOS | Founder, SABEDORIA ALTERNATIVA

• JOSÉ GONÇALVES ROBERTO | Board Member, AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON

11. RUI CLEMENTE LÉLÉ | Non-Executive Board Member, SANEST • RUI JOSÉ GONÇALVES

12. PAULA LACERDA | Architect, LACERDA E GAFNER ARCHITECTS • AARON GAFNER | LACERDA E GAFNER ARCHITECTS

58 | Retail Trends



Celebrating and Recognising Excellence IFE Expo RH and Masters of Capital Humano 2012 Awards at the Estoril Congress Centre

Four International Brands were distinguished at the IFE’s annual Human Resource Awards

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> LEFT TO RIGHT >

1. ANTÓNIO GOMES | Managing Director, CRITICALFACTOR • SANDRA ESPADA | Coordinator RH, CRITICALFACTOR • ENRIQUE RUIZ | Consultant, INFOEMPLEO.COM

2. MÁRIO VEIGA SIMÃO | Partner, CAPEDUC CONSULTORIA E FORMAÇÃO • VALTER ALCOFORADO BARREIRA | Executive Director, KNOWING COUNTS • RUI NEVES | Partner, CAPEDUC CONSULTORIA E FORMAÇÃO

3. DUARTE GASPAR | Account Manager, RANDSTAD TECHNOLOGIES • PEDRO ROSADO | Business Manager, RANDSTAD

4. RAQUEL REBELO | Business Unit Manager, IFE • PEDRO MIGUEL GERALDES | Sales Manager, IFE

5. SANDRA PINHEIRO | Training Department Manager, IFE • CRISTINA MARTINS DE BARROS | General Manager, IFE

6. EDUARDO QUERO SEVILLA | General Manager, META 4 • LAURA SÁNCHEZ DE LOS REYES | Operations Outsourcing

Portugal, META 4 • NUNO FERNANDES | Pre-Sales Consultant, META 4

7. PEDRO CAEIRO | Training Department, MILLENNIUM BCP • VALTER ALCOFORADO BARREIRA | Executive Director, KNOWING COUNTS

8. CRISTINA RAMALHO GALVÃO | Staff Welfare Officer, GRUPO PT • ADRIANA VIEIRA | Executive Coach, COACHING CLUB

9. HUGO LEITÃO | Consultant, B-TRAINING CONSULTING • INÊS SOUSA | Senior Consultant, B-TRAINING CONSULTING

• ALDA DOS SANTOS NEVES | Partner, B-TRAINING CONSULTING • MAFALDA COSTA ISAAC | Partner, B-TRAINING

CONSULTING • ADRIANA ARAUJO | Consultant, B-TRAINING CONSULTING

10. ANA WALLIS • ANA RIBEIRO • NUNO SANTOS CARVALHO | Sales Manager, SAGE PORTUGAL

11. JOSÉ LEAL | Managing Director, AUTOVISION • RUI SILVA | North Área Coordinator, AUTOVISION • SANDRA NEVES | COO, ATEC

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60 | Retail Trends

[ BU SI N E S S PROMO ]

Located at Lisbon’s Rua de Santa Marta 48, just a stone’s throw from fashionable Avenida da Liberdade, this cosy and inviting restaurant boasts a new concept of cuisine

the core values of which are anchored in quality service and the Inspira Santa Marta Hotel’s philosophy built around interactivity, transparency and sustainability.

The Open Brasserie has a menu based on healthy, organic food, locally purchased, wherever possible under the terms of The Fair Trade Foundation. In addition to its list of healthy ingredients, this Restaurant also serves pure, filtered water which is bottled in recycled glass bottles on the premises as part of its key ecologically-friendly and socially sustainable project Água Inspira.

All proceeds from the water contributions entirely rever to Pump

Get Involved, Be Inspired at the Open Brasserie

The Open Brasserie Mediterrânica is a

contemporary and intimate eatery

offering fresh, organic Portuguese and

international cuisine with a

Mediterranean twist.

60 | Retail Trends

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Aid, a non-government organisation that supplies remote villages in Africa with fresh drinking water by constructing water pumps called Elephant Pumps.

The Brasserie has a range of mouth-watering dishes specially prepared by resident Chef Stephane Gallou and his team: various risottos, sea bass prepared in the Portuguese style with a mixture of leaf vegetables and Mirandesa veal loin are just some of the tantalising specialities that are available on the restaurant’s à la carte menu from April.

Apart from the à la carte menu, Chef Stephane Gallou has a selection of delicious suggestions based on seasonal produce which highlights perfectly the restaurants eco-friendly concept, while weekday lunchtimes offer the chance to try out the business menu for just €14.50.

Open Brasserie MediterrânicaInspira Santa Marta Hotel

****Rua de Santa Marta, 48 - Lisboa

Phone: + 351 210 440 900

Everyday

Lunch from 12:30 to 14:30

Dinner from 19:30 to 21:30

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Working with Energy and PassionPortuguese Association for Facility Management (APFM) monthly ladies’ networking breakfast

APFM ladies hold the first of what promises to be regular monthly networking breakfasts for professionals at the APFM’s recently inaugurated headquarters in Edifício Adamastor at Lisbon’s Parque das Nações

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> LEFT TO RIGHT >

1. TERESA VENDEIRINHO | Marketing/Relations, A&D STEELCASE • MARIA ROSA ABEIJÓN | Managing Director, 3G OFFICE

• PAULA GONÇALVES | Account Manager, STEELCASE

2. SAMANTHA ALMEIDA | YOURSPACE • ANA CRISTINA PATRÍCIO | A.PATRÍCIO & ASSOCIADOS SOC. TÉCNICOS OFICIAIS

DE CONTAS • TERESA VENDEIRINHO | Marketing/Relations, A&D STEELCASE • MARIA ROSA ABEIJÓN | Managing Director,

3G OFFICE • MARIA JOSÉ VAQUERO | JONES LANG LASALLE • JOANA RODRIGUES | AGUIRRE NEWMAN

3. PAULA GONÇALVES | Account Manager, STEELCASE • VICTORIA FREIRE TRIEP | Architect Consultant

• DOLORES CAMPANIÇO NOBRE | ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS CONSULTING • ROSA MARQUES | Human Resources Director,

JONES LANG LASALLE • ANA SOFIA SIMÕES | EDP VALOR • FILOMENA BRUNO | Client Manager, AVILA BUSINESS CENTERS

• RAQUEL SANTANA | Business Center Manager, AVILA BUSINESS CENTERS • SAMANTHA ALMEIDA | YOURSPACE

• ANA CRISTINA PATRÍCIO | A.PATRÍCIO SOC. TÉCNICOS OFICIAIS DE CONTAS • TERESA VENDEIRINHO

| Marketing/Relations, A&D STEELCASE

4. ANA SOFIA SIMÕES | EDP VALOR • PAULA GONÇALVES | Account Manager, STEELCASE • DOLORES CAMPANIÇO NOBRE

| ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS CONSULTING

5. RAQUEL SANTANA | Business Center Manager, AVILA BUSINESS CENTERS • FILOMENA BRUNO | Client Manager, AVILA BUSINESS CENTERS

6. MARTA VASCONCELOS RAPOSO | Facilities & Project Manager • VICTORIA FREIRE TRIEP | Architect Consultant

7. INÊS ASSIS | APFM • ANA CRISTINA PATRÍCIO | A.PATRÍCIO & ASSOCIADOS SOC. TÉCNICOS OFICIAIS DE CONTAS

8. TERESA VENDEIRINHO | Marketing/Relations, A&D STEELCASE • ROSA MARQUES | Human Resources Director, JONES LANG LASALLE

• MARIA JOSÉ VAQUERO | JONES LANG LASALLE

9. SÓNIA OLIVEIRA | Chief Happiness Operations, WORKENERGY • CIDÁLIA PINTO MEIRELES | Chief Happiness Officer WORKENERGY

64 | Retail Trends



Nuno Crato at the

American Club

Minister for Education Nuno Crato tells business leaders at the American Club that Portugal can’t be successful without good teachers. The Government is to introduce evaluation tests

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> LEFT TO RIGHT >

1. ANTÓNIO PONCES DE CARVALHO | ASSOCIAÇÃO DE JARDINS DE ESCOLAS JOÃO DE DEUS • ANNE TAYLOR | President,

AMERICAN CLUB OF LISBON • NUNO CRATO | Minister of Education

2. JOSÉ SENDIM CUNHAL | President, SOUSA CUNHAL TURISMO (L’AND VINEYARDS) • LUÍS FIGUEIREDO TRINDADE

| Managing Director, PARTNERS IN BUSINESS

3. MARIA DA CONCEIÇÃO OLIVEIRA | CLINIPINEL • ANTÓNIO DOMINGUES | CEO, PLENOESPAÇO

4. JOSÉ CARLOS FERREIRA | Country Sales Manager, UNITED • ISABEL PEREIRA | Marketing Manager, UNITED

5. MERCEDES MOTTEK | LEGACY FUND PORTUGAL • MANUEL DE BRAGANÇA | VILLAS-BOAS ACP

• CHARI EMPRIS | Principal, OEIRAS INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL

6. ANTÓNIO PEREIRA | COLÉGIO ATLÂNTICO • VITOR PEREIRA | COLÉGIO ATLÂNTICO

7. PAULA LACERDA | Architect, LACERDA- GAFNER • CONSTANTINO FERREIRA | NETDOMINUM

8. PAULA VICENTE | Program Officer, FUNDAÇÃO LUSO-AMERICANA • SOFIA RAMOS | SABEDORIA ALTERNATIVA

9. LUÍS MERGULHÃO | CEO, OMNICOMMEDIA GROUP • JOHN SCOTT JOHNSON | Director, ESPÍRITO SANTO FINANCIAL

• JOÃO PESTANA DIAS | General Manager, FADUS SPECIAL EVENTS

10. PAULA PINTO DA FONSECA | FUNDAÇÃO EDP • JOSÉ CARLOS FERREIRA | Country Sales Manager, UNITED AIRLINES

• JOSEFA DOMINGOS | 2011 ACL Awardee - Disorders Physical Therapist Specialist, PARKINSON DISEASE & MOVEMENT

• MARIA JOÃO GUIMARÃES | 2011 ACL Awardee – Researched mentoring programs in the greater New York area, PÚBLICO

• CHARLES A. BUCHANAN JR. | Administrator, LUSO-AMERICAN FOUNDATION • ÓSCAR VIEIRA | FUNDAÇÃO PT

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66 | Retail Trends

The C 250 CDI is an excellent compromise between performance and consumption, road handling and comfort.

Mercedes C 250 Blue EFFICIENCY

With a sportier restyling to the front and a better, more luxurious interior finish, the C250 CDI with AMG sports body kit looks impressive anywhere.

Anyone who gets the chance to get behind the wheel of this model is assured a sporty drive since this car only needs 7.2 seconds to reach 100km/h, easily attaining speeds of up to 240 Km/h. All this excitement is down to its fantastic 2.2, 204 hp turbo diesel engine which you hardly feel turning over thanks to its 7G Tronic automatic transmission, not to mention the roomy comfort inside the car which easily takes four adults on a jour-ney that is smooth and economical.

And the C 250 CDI is packed with extras, from the AMG Kit and GPS to the fabulous dark glass panoramic sunroof which contrasts beautifully with the calcite white body paint. A com-bination that is not only trendy but also emphasises the soft contours of the body.This car, with its sporty look, comfortable ride and executive class is a pleasure to drive, while the excellent diesel engine is more than a match in terms of performance for any petrol engine, while still offering all the benefits of reduced fuel consumption.PRICE: from € 47,615

Blue BeautyEngineered

[ PA RT N E R S C A R S ]

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Nº 2 Partners in Business Magazine