Sonny Lou & Paula

Interior Designer & Maintenance Manager - SMCP

With an international portfolio that reaches from Los Angeles to Sydney, our architects have created over 1,300 ways to discover collections by Sandro, Maje and Claudie Pierlot. Even though a digital wave has rocked the retail sector to its foundations, SMCP’s strategy continues to be built around the value of a brick-and-mortar experience.

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    SMCP

« We build stores to create a unique customer experience for thousands of people, encouraging them to exercise their purchasing power.  »

The people responsible for these foundations, and the immaculate wooden floor, are Sonny Lou, the interior designer, and Paula, the maintenance manager, with two distinct yet intimately linked roles.

Once the hunt for the city’s best locations has ended, the architect’s journey starts when the keys are handed over. Whether as a restaurant, bar or café kiosk, every store had a story of its own beforehand. Sonny Lou’s task was to transform them in a way that would bring our collections to life in a unique setting, while ensuring that the finished store could be handed over within the tightest possible deadline.

 

When the works are complete, the store will be home to furniture, ready-to-wear clothing and accessories.

Until the moment when … “There’s an incident or damage that puts the safety and comfort of clerks or customers at risk,” adds Paula. Her role: to monitor the state of the store once it has opened, and to manage the best combinations of scope and timings for work in order to minimize closure periods. With an average pace of ten openings per month, architects’ routines are a race against time.

« This company’s growth is impressive. I don’t think there is anyone else growing at this pace, anywhere in the world.  »

This results-oriented culture of excellence is intimately linked to the pace set by the Group.

For our architects, the margin of error is extremely thin, because errors inevitably mean massive financial consequences. “A day’s delay on a site causes thousands of euros of losses and, as an aside, a bunch of stress!” adds Sonny Lou.

If they are smart, architects and maintenance managers can position themselves as authentic, skilled craftspeople as well as capable project managers with a focus on both quality and deadlines. “Every store opening serves as a lesson to prepare for the next. We learn to prioritize in order to process as many requests as possible, and provide the best possible solutions,” says Paula.

From one continent to the next, points of sale all feature a similar style, enabling our customers to find what they’re looking for, not just in terms of the collections themselves, but also by providing a context and a unique experience that can only come from our architects.

 

Caroline, Joachim & Laurence

Digital Learning Team

Mélanie

Training Manager