actualidad local - fuerteventura magazine hoy

10
Año III - Nº 34 - Marzo | March | Marsch - 2009
QUIÉN ES QUIÉN EN LA ISLA / WHO’S WHO IN THE ISLAND? /WER IST WER AUF DER INSEL?
Juan Latorre Jover and Juan Luis Latorre
«When we started containers did not exist,
furniture came on pallets»
FMHOY - Fuerteventura
This is a Business saga. Father and son created and
developed together their business dedicated to
furniture with new venues in both Lanzarote and Fuerteventura,
and today we wanted them to tell us how
they managed this achievement.
We start our interview with the creator Juan Latorre
who was born in Valencia in Sedavi «the cradle of
furniture» according to him, and as if his profession
had been decided from his cradle, he has been selling
furniture in the Canaries for 42 years.
How do you feel now, Valencian or Canarian?
Now I feel more like a Canarian, my children were
born here… Although it is not that easy to loose the
accent, despite the number of years, there is always
some left.
Was it only in Gran Canaria that you started
working as a sales representative?
No, it was on all three islands of the province of Las
Palmas and later I extended to Tenerife and about 30
years ago, we created our first distribution centre in
Gran Canaria, from where we attended the other
islands with our own trucks, etc.
At the beginning, there wouldn’t have been much
competition in this field. You must have been
pioneers…
Imagine, even containers did not exist; furniture had
to come on pallets.
In those days were you purely a wholesaler?
Yes, we were in the Industrial Estate of El Goro in
Gran Canaria, and this is where was also created our
first 1.800 m2 furniture exhibition centre for our clients
who in turn used to bring their own clients so that they
could choose their own furniture.
This is a large surface when you think that this
was 30 years ago...
Yes, in total we had about 6.000 m2 between
storage and the exhibition centre.
And when did you decide to open your first shop
for the public?
14 years ago we thought of opening a shop for the
public and it was in Fuerteventura that we decided to
go ahead with this idea; we opened large premises
dedicated to furniture in the Industrial Estate of Risco
Prieto.
When did your son come along to help in this big
business?
In truth I am the one helping him, at present he is
bearing 80% of the weight and he has been the drive
behind the changes in our businesses over the past
few years. He is well prepared, thanks to his career as
a lawyers and the different masters he completed, they
gave him a useful commercial experience.
Juan Luís, can you tell us more about this? When
did you decide to give up your career as lawyer and
incorporate the family business?
I had always worked as a Lawyer in offices dedicated
to businesses, which is why I have a lot of background
in business management. Then, with an MBA that I
completed in Barcelona and after working three years
on Mainland Spain, I thought of using all this experience
in our own business. And here I am, carrying on with
the business that I saw my father start when I was a
child.
You were away from the island for a long time?
For approximately 10 years.
And you came back to the tranquillity of the
islands, in Fuerteventura…
Really I haven’t had any spare time since I came
back, we have reorganised the company, both internally
and externally, and we have also inaugurated new
premises in Lanzarote, Laver, which is purely dedicated
to sofas and rest. Then, on 24 th January we inaugurated
this new shop in Tuco that is very different from
traditional furniture shops. It is a modern shop that
offers good value for money. The selling system is also
different with immediate delivery, etc. which is different
from our other businesses.
Because this is a chain with 103 shops on the
national level, it allows us to have access to large global
purchases and get unbeatable prices. This shop in
Fuerteventura is the first shop of the kind in the
Canaries with those characteristics and we want people
from this island to be the first to benefit from it.