You are now sited at the Concepció Market that perfectly shows what it has been called “the Barcelona Market Model”. A model that is putting the markets in a central place in the planning of the cities’ commerce, urbanism and social live. Our markets have undergone an important modernization and remodeling process, making them more competitive, with modern facilities and services and meeting the citizen’s demand. Now the Barcelona markets are one of the best ranked services provided by the City Council.
But what we can now call a success history had a breaking point:
Barcelona, like many other European cities by mid-century XX had a wide network of markets, public buildings in many cases obsolete, with low profitability that was contributing to the degradation in their immediate surroundings.
Many other cities opted for their demolition, often ending up in the hands of private promoters (with the consequential loss of public spaces) or they left the management of these large areas to other private operators, thus losing any scope for public initiative.
Barcelona understood that the markets were a platform allowing the ability to structure and vertebrate the neighborhood, improve social cohesion, and to use them as a driving force for the commerce of the city, thus favoring a specific model of commerce of proximity and promoting healthier eating habits and the Mediterranean diet. To manage all this process, the Barcelona Institute of Markets was created
The BARCELONA INSTITUTE OF MARKETS is a public body, depending on the city of Barcelona, that manages a markets network comprising 39 food retail markets + 4 special markets, making the biggest network of food retail markets in Europe
Following this model of action, over the last few years the IMMB has modernised 19 of the markets in the network of 39 found in Barcelona and has altered the landscape and the use of the markets of Barcelona with the introduction of supermarkets, services, etc. Two newly created markets have also been opened and the Barcelona remodelling model is beginning to be applied in some of the city's most emblematic non-food markets, such as Encants Vells - Fira de Bellcaire
The Barcelona City Council, Department of City Commerce is the owner of the markets which are managed by the Institut de Mercats de Barcelona in cooperation with the traders.
The coordinated efforts made by sellers and the city, the new consumer tendencies, and the modernization process experienced by the city markets (125 milion € - invested from 2008 to 2011), which are the most traditional and offer-concentrated food retail selling centres, has allowed them to successfully compete with other distribution channels or big corporations, thus adapting to many of the XXIst Centurie’s consumers demands.
For you to make an idea of the real dimensions of this network, the Barcelona's municipal markets have a turnover of between 950 million and 1.1 billion euros (8% of the whole retail commerce of Barcelona), making for a cities’ global economic impact of 1.000.000.000 euros. The total number of direct workers in Barcelona markets is 8,000 people, distributed in 3.370 businesses..
But going again into detail, if we say that the success of the Barcelona markets relies in a big extent on the remodelling process they suffered, let me please introduce you very shortly its main features.
1) Recover and renew the city's historical heritage. Many of the markets remodeled are unique buildings, and these renovations retain their unique structure. Of course, adapting them to the new customers requirements.
2) Revitalization of commerce in the area, with an intensive labor sector, maintaining SME food-related trades, and their know how, while improving their competitiveness.
3) Create public space of interaction between its citizens, not only in the urbanization of the environment, but also in the new services that are generated (conferences and meetings room for the neighbours, parkings)
4) Management of urban flows of people: Promoting the neighboring commerce, avoiding travelling to malls to the outskirts (pollution, overcrowding).
5) And promoting concepts such as healthy balanced diets, fostering the commerce of proximity and seasonal products, considering not only the origin of the food but also facilitating daily shopping.
- The public-private partnership management is one of the main features of our markets management model. Even the markets remodeling costs are partially financed (up to the 50% of its cost), by the very sellers.
- Another of the reasons of maintaining the public-private management, is to progressively adapt the administrative regulation of the sector to the needs of consumers, increase flexibility and adaptation to the rules (scheduling, service planning, and delivery address), thereby exerting driving force for the rest of the trade sector of the city.
- Finally, the remodeling generates an extensive dialogue dynamic with all sectors (public sector, sellers and citizens) during all of the phases of the implementation, which in turn gives them a feeling of a sense of neighborhood and belonging to the market.
The results are tangible and real. For instance, this Market, the Mercat de la Concepció has also been recently renovated.
The results can be measured in different ways:
In this Slide we see the results in terms of consensus and citizen participation. In this sense, the reform project incorporates a transparent framework for negotiations and dialogue that ensures the involvement of many sectors and groups in the city, both the Administration and especially the traders and citizens. This public-private coordination of the project produces a high acceptance by citizens, according polls.
We can see also tangible results regarding new services provided by the City:
- Parkings,
- New halls /meetings rooms for the neighbours
- Recycling systems,
- New supermarket
- Home delivery…
SLIDE 7
And finally, the new spaces generated together with the services provided by the Institute of Markets, like the joint Communication and Promotion service, gives to the Markets this additional added value, in terms of:
- Promoting healthy habits and the Mediterranean diet and products,
- Educating in socially responsible attitudes to the customers,
- Creating new spaces for interaction with the neighbours, organizing events like Christmas, carnival etc
This approach is what makes the markets a real tool for social cohesion.
According to the Municipal Services Survey 2009, among the municipal services offered, the municipal markets receive one of the highest scores (6.9). The markets are always valued by the citizens as one of the top three services of the city.
This so-called “Barcelona Markets model” is being successfully exported both nationally and internationally. As a result, the Municipal Institute of Markets of Barcelona has seen a significant increase in requests for advice on markets both in Catalonia and the rest of Spain, as well as at international level. This is also reflected in Barcelona's European leadership and recognition by many international instances.
As an example, the Barcelona Institute of Markets has been recently recognized as one of the five best European Public Sector Administrations regarding the implementation of new management models of joint public-private partnerships.
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