Gran Centre Granollers – “city, culture and commerce”

Town centre management (TCM) schemes in Spain have generally evolved primarily from a retail perspective, led by small and medium sized (SME) retailers. However, their development has often focused on business goals (e.g. profit, increase in footfall, etc). In doing so, they have often overlooked the very social issues that have embedded retail historically in the socio‐economic matrix of our towns and cities. This paper, adopting a case‐study approach, seeks to re‐address this imbalance by exploring some of the key success factors of Gran Centre Granollers (GCG) – one of Spain's most advanced retailer‐led TCM schemes located in Granollers (near Barcelona).

This paper, adopting a case‐study approach, explores some of the key success factors ofGCC..

GCG's visionary motto of “city, culture and commerce” and its inclusive approach to the management of the area's stakeholders have captured the imagination of the town's independent retailers (75 per cent of them are members of the scheme). It has also proved pivotal in engaging the town's residents with the scheme's vision, purpose and ethical values. This is reflected in the success of their customer loyalty credit card initiative and the steady growth of the scheme's membership from ten to three hundred businesses in the last ten years.

This case study should be of interest to town centre managers, SME retailers, researchers in the social sciences and students of urban regeneration and retail management.