BigMat has held its annual convention in Lisbon. What balance can be made?
You often think you are on an island, in an independent way, but in the end the problems are very similar in all countries. There were representatives from France, from Italy, from the Czech Republic… and you see that almost every problem repeats itself, each with its own characteristics, and that pushes you to improve.
What are these problems?
Now we are living in this war situation, but our segment is working and it is working well, although with the evolution of the situation you have some uncertainty. Especially for what happens next year. We wondered the same thing with the pandemic and suddenly the next year was great, it was better. And now the war has come and you wonder what will happen. Because costs are skyrocketing, and energy…
The sector suffered from the real estate crisis. Then came the pandemic and now the war in Ukraine. How has he managed to overcome all these crises?
They are certainly completely different situations. The crisis of 2012 was very strong and what helped us a little to stay is precisely this type of organization like BigMat, which was able to join forces and endorse the partner. Now, although the economic situation and the type of crisis is absolutely different and has nothing to do with it, we are doing well and our segment is working. Although we have problems such as lack of supplies and increased prices. At BigMat we have dealt with the situation thanks to our logistics center in Castelló, which has 100,000 square meters and has served as an absolute regulator for our partners.
What do you attribute to the fact that the sector is doing well?
To your own situation. The pandemic suddenly forced people into their homes, they had more savings and began to see the need to improve their homes. And the inertia we carried from the pandemic with the reforms is not over yet. We are lucky that we went with the wind in our favor.
How does your business balance the segment of used home renovation and new construction?
The new work did fall off a lot, but the renovation allowed us to maintain business. Now it continues to be maintained and could represent 40%.
We talked about the supply crisis, the price of energy… How are they impacting the sector? Because we continually see delays in works and delivery times, for example…
Indeed, materials have become more expensive, but I think the market is now settling down and is able to absorb these increases. And yes, sometimes it costs a little more, it might take a while. We hope that it will not cease to be a conjunctural situation and that in a few months the situation can be renewed. The problem is that it persists over time and becomes structural, which is the dangerous thing. It seems that the forecast is that inflation may be under control by the middle of next year and that the commodity market will also recover. In the end, you understand that the market is also self-regulating and in any case the situation is not for now like the one we experienced in the previous crisis.
On the part of the public administrations, they are launching aid programs and tax benefits for certain actions, such as energy adequacy. Is this being noticed too?
Yeah yeah. There’s no doubt that all of these aids encourage the market, which is people who want to change the grades, want to change the systems and the windows a little bit or whatever. In the end, this does invigorate the sector a bit. Then help and contribute a little so that this segment of our business continues to be maintained.
Returning to the company, 22 years have passed since the foundations of what is now BigMat in Spain were more or less laid. What balance can you make of the evolution? Because the landscape is very different from what it originally was…
I believe that the philosophy remains, which is the concept of why it was set up and how it was conceived: it was about joining efforts to improve. At that time, the primary one was a central shopping center and it was almost the only objective that was there and that we maintain today. But there are other elements that we have been integrating and developing, such as the technological aspect or training. We take care, for example, of partner training or even help in the succession of companies. So we have evolved from being a purchasing center for the concept of price and supplier, to being a purchasing center for services. For example, we have a center in Zaragoza with 22 people from where we provide all kinds of IT and technological coverage and solutions. Or we have implemented systems for our logistics centers and the entire cargo system.
And where are they headed?
Now we are somewhat in the verticalization, in the development of new businesses that we tackle after the recent acquisition of La Plataforma de la Construcció, with six warehouses in Madrid, six more in Barcelona and the logistics platforms. This purchase has been a milestone for our company in terms of way of thinking, because this is where we go from being just a shopping center to opening our eyes to other realities.
Has this purchase been your big leap?
Yes, yes, logistics is the big leap in our evolution. In fact, we are still somewhat including it within our own structure, but our dynamic is so active that we are looking to implement a learning business model. Since then we have acquired other warehouses such as Cámara warehouses with three centers in Benavente, Valladolid and Palencia, which we have completely restructured. We will transform, we will be a dynamic element of our sector.
Define for me in closing what sets BigMat apart from other groups or competitors.
The difference is in our company format, our partner formats and our customer service formats. In the end we form a group of almost 700 companies, but if we talk about the BigMat brand we only have almost 300 partners with more than 300 points of sale. And we understand the market and the customer in a different way and this is what identifies us and makes us different from other competitors. We are in sometimes small or relatively small populations, between 30,000 and 10,000 inhabitants, where others do not reach. Now we have acquired another dimension, but we have another way of interacting with our customer. The customer sees us more closely. That is why I consider that this business model continues to have a long way to go and we have many possibilities. There are other, much more global axes where they are much bigger, as they have other ways of thinking and relating to the professional, and I think this is what makes us different. And we enhance this identity.