Retail Facilities Management insights from Patricia Soria, Regional Director UK & Europe, and Lisa Holmes, Operations Director, Macro 

Behind every successful store opening, consistent brand moment and seamless customer journey is a facilities management function working quietly in the background to keep stores safe, welcoming, efficient and aligned with the brand promise.

As retailers navigate rising customer expectations, growing sustainability requirements, operational cost pressures and increasingly complex estates, facilities management is playing a more strategic role in shaping brand experience and business performance.

Ahead of Macro’s upcoming retail event, Bringing the Brand to Life, we spoke with Patricia Soria, Regional Director UK & Europe, and Lisa Holmes, Operations Director, about the trends reshaping retail FM, the role of FM in creating customer experiences and what retail leaders should be focusing on next. 

Retail facilities management is evolving rapidly. While maintaining safe, compliant and operational environments remains essential, retailers increasingly expect FM teams to contribute to wider business objectives. 

Retailers are balancing cost pressures, rising customer expectations, store performance and the need to maintain consistency across large and often international portfolios. At the same time, retailers need to balance service quality and increasing sustainability and ESG requirements.

Patricia believes this presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

"The opportunity is to use technology, data and smarter ways of working to improve efficiency while adapting stores to changing customer behaviours"

This shift is redefining the role of FM in retail. It is no longer viewed purely as a reactive function that responds when something goes wrong. Increasingly, FM supports store operations, brand consistency, commercial performance and long-term growth across complex estates.

Technology, data and smarter ways of working are helping retailers improve efficiency while maintaining high service standards. As a result, facilities management is increasingly being recognised as a strategic function that supports brand value, customer satisfaction and operational resilience. 

When businesses think about brand experience, the focus often falls on marketing campaigns, merchandising strategies and store design. Yet every customer interaction is also shaped by the physical environment. 

Lighting, temperature, cleanliness, maintenance, safety, accessibility and overall ambience all influence how customers experience a brand. In retail, these details can determine whether a store feels premium, welcoming, efficient, inspiring or frustrating. A store that's too hot, a broken elevator, or simply how the store feels when people walk in all impact the experience of that brand within seconds.

This is why FM plays such a defining role in bringing retail brands to life. Great retail experiences are delivered through hundreds of operational decisions that ensure stores are safe, welcoming, efficient and consistently aligned with the brand promise.

Customers may not consciously notice excellent facilities management, but they quickly notice when something does not meet expectations. A poorly maintained store, faulty equipment or inconsistent environment can undermine a carefully crafted brand experience. Conversely, a comfortable, reliable and well-maintained environment reinforces trust, confidence and customer satisfaction.

Ultimately, great FM should be almost invisible – but its impact on the customer experience is significant.

For retailers operating across multiple locations, regions or countries, maintaining consistent standards can be a significant challenge. From flagship environments and shopping centres to fast-paced rollouts and multi-country store portfolios, FM helps ensure every location delivers the same level of experience, reliability and operational quality.

According to Lisa, success starts with strong governance, effective communication and trusted supplier partnerships across the retail portfolio. We asked Lisa what separates retailers delivering class leading customer experience from those that struggle.

As portfolios grow in scale and complexity, organisations need clear processes that ensure the right people receive the right information at the right time. Consistency is critical not only for compliance but also for protecting brand reputation.

Lisa adds "Brand consistency is key to sales, and that has to sit alongside supplier management which is for the FM organisation to achieve continuously. Data and communication underpins this"

This reflects one of the key themes of Macro’s retail event: how data, technology and stronger operational visibility can help retailers improve store performance, manage maintenance and asset lifecycles, and make smarter decisions across their estates.

The combination of governance, supplier management, information-led decision making and lessons learned helps retailers deliver consistency while remaining agile enough to respond to changing business needs.

Looking ahead, both Patricia and Lisa believe adaptability will become one of the defining characteristics of successful retailers. 

Consumer expectations continue to evolve, and organisations must be able to identify trends early, respond quickly and adapt their environments accordingly. Physical stores remain a vital showcase for brands and products, but customer expectations increasingly extend beyond the store itself. 

Retailers must create more seamless connections between physical and digital channels while ensuring stores continue to offer something distinctive, memorable and worth visiting. 

Employee experience will also remain high on the agenda. Stores are not only customer environments. They are workplaces, and the quality of those environments directly affects the people delivering the customer experience. 

The ability to combine operational excellence, customer experience, employee experience, sustainability and data-led decision making will become increasingly important as retailers navigate future challenges. 

This is also where FM has the opportunity to move further upstream, helping retailers balance speed, cost, safety and sustainability while supporting growth and improving operational reliability

The theme of Macro’s September retail event, Bringing the Brand to Life, reflects a challenge faced by retailers across the sector. 

As online shopping continues to offer convenience and choice, physical stores must provide experiences that customers cannot get elsewhere. Stores are no longer simply places to transact. They are destinations that bring brands, products and experiences together. 

Patricia comments:

“With the convenience of online shopping, customers need more reasons to visit a store. It needs to become a destination and an experience, not simply a transaction. That means every part of the physical environment needs to reinforce the brand and what it stands for. And FM has a key role in making sure that experience is delivered consistently, every day and across every location” 

Every aspect of the physical environment contributes to that experience. From presentation and maintenance to safety, sustainability, store openings, asset lifecycles and operational resilience, facilities management helps transform brand promises into day-to-day reality.

“Every brand invests heavily in the promises it makes to customers. The question is whether the physical environment delivers on those promises every day, across every store.” adds Lisa.

That question sits at the heart of the event. How can retailers ensure their physical environments consistently reflect the brand? How can FM support commercial performance and customer experience at scale? And how can retail leaders use data, partnerships and operational insight to create more resilient, efficient and engaging estates?