Recipients of the Barcelona Commerce Awards 2018

When

08/11(2018

Barcelona’s big night for commerce once again paid homage to retail professionals and their business endeavours. The Oval Room at the Catalan National Art Museum was the venue selected for the 21st awards presentation ceremony. The prizes were awarded this year to two establishments and firms in each of the different categories.

At the ceremony, Mayor Ada Colau highlighted that local commerce has an indispensable social function and gives a sense of belonging to the community. She reminded us that the City Council will stand by and support retailers in the face of the challenges that this sector is tackling, such as the digitalisation of business. In turn, the Councillor for Commerce, Markets, and Tourism, Agustí Colom, reaffirmed the recognition and value placed on Barcelona’s commerce with the awards presented, as well as recognizing its role as the backbone of the city. He also reminded us that thanks to the efforts and tenacity of many retailers (with the City Council's support) a project has been launched to create a loyalty card: Viba Barcelona, “the gateway to digitalisation” of commerce. 

Innovative Commerce

Award Winners: Yes Future Positive Supermarket and Wonder Photo Shop

Yes Future Positive Supermarket is a new neighbourhood supermarket located on C/ Viladomat, in Sant Antoni, that meets the demands of new lifestyles. Behind it are two young, entrepreneurial partners, who had an idea, put it into action, and have become leaders with a philosophy that is now their hallmark: reduce, reuse, recycle, and respect.

Wonder Photo Shop is the result of reinventing another idea. It innovates by getting closer to their customers and offering them solutions from a different perspective. This is the path Fujifilm followed with this shop, located on C/Gran de Gràcia, which was born from the digital photography device crisis and today offers new ideas for lovers of digital photography. Its approach is to enhance its users’ creativity. It is the first Fujifilm shop to open in Europe.

 

Albert González Prize for helping to promote and raise the profile of the city's commerce

Award Winners: Ricardo López Beltrol and Joan Múrria Boada.

López Beltrol is the founder of Pilma, a benchmark establishment in Barcelona for designer furniture and decoration and travel items, with more than 40 years of history behind it. It sparked new market trends with the importation of Scandinavian products and products from avant-garde Italian designers. Three of the four Pilma shops in Barcelona have been finalists for the FAD Awards in Architecture and Interior Design.

Joan Múrria Boada, with his Colmado Múrria gourmet products shop is a retail professional with a hundred-year-old establishment that forms part of Eixample's history but is modern and has reinvented itself. Múrria has contributed to elevating the profile of Barcelona's food culture and his establishment plays a role in the neighbourhood’s activities.

 

Local Commerce Prize

Award Winners: Núvol de fils and Gra de Gràcia.

Núvol de fils is a shop that’s been open to the general public for 35 years and aims to provide a local service to neighbourhood residents. Besides selling haberdashery products, it also organises workshops for its customers, among other activities. It’s also an establishment that is involved in the community, participating in the “Commerce and Schools” education project, the Radars campaign and “Portraits of the Neighbourhood”.

Gra de Gràcia is a business model that offers a selection of locally-sourced products, which favours a healthy diet and the environment, and where personal attention is offered. It’s a shop with ecological, natural, and locally-sourced bulk products, free from plastic packaging. They advocate for small Catalan producers and the knowledge of where products come from (which they highlight as a sign of quality), while caring for the environment and championing responsible consumption. They also organise activities such as healthy cooking workshops and talks, and they participate in neighbourhood life.

 

Sustainable Commerce Prize

Award Winners: Demano and Vida meva.

Demano offers attractive and functional objects made from recycled materials. It’s an example of upcycling that produces added social value and favours local sources for the origin of their products. The design and production are done in Barcelona through small workshops and social entities that foster the integration of individuals at risk of social exclusion.

Vida meva promotes an environmentally friendly, locally-sourced, and seasonal diet. Its prerogative is to give priority to direct contact with local suppliers. In its commercial activity, it promotes the prevention of waste generation. It also collaborates with a neighbourhood organisation that it gives products to, a way of avoiding food waste and providing resources to its social surroundings.

 

Collaborative Commerce

The Poble-sec and Paral·lel retailers association received this prize for their innovation and dynamism in their efforts to promote commerce. They have made strides in favour of the collaborative economy and opened new doors, namely those of the Poble-sec Trade Show, which shows the possibilities and vitality of neighbourhood establishments with a focus that overcomes the limits of local commerce, because it also attracts local producers, co-ops, coworking ventures, family spaces, and examples of the social and solidarity economy.

 

Barcelona Markets Prize

Award Winners: TUFASFOOD, at Mercat de l’Estrella, and Carnisseria Solé, a butcher’s at Mercat de les Corts.

TUFASFOOD received the prize for best collective market initiative, at Estrella. The project got off the ground in 2016 with the aim of sharing the market's food culture through a personalised advisory service, workshops, and food activities held inside the market. It’s a gastronomic classroom with a programme that has something for everyone. It preserves Catalan cuisine, generates community, and many professionals and local residents participate in it.

Carnisseria Solé received the prize for best individual initiative for revitalising a market. The Solé family has deep roots in Les Corts, a market where they’ve carried out their profession as butchers since the beginning. They are now in the third generation and a benchmark in the neighbourhood, where they sell a wide variety of meats.