Almeida Junior Celebrates 44 Years of Success with Absolute Leadership in Santa Catarina

Almeida Junior, the leading company in the shopping center segment in the South of Brazil, celebrates 44 years this Wednesday, the 10th. Founded by businessman Jaimes Almeida Junior in 1980, the company’s journey is marked by achievements and significant investments in the state. The group owns six shopping centers in the most economically important regions of Santa Catarina, which account for 78% of the state’s GDP. The group’s expansion pipeline includes the growth of its properties, starting with the expansion of Balneário Shopping, the company’s iconic shopping center, in the first half of this year.

Still this month, AJ Realty, a subsidiary of Almeida Junior, will inaugurate The Spot One, the first residential property in the South of Brazil connected to a shopping center—Balneário Shopping. For the CEO of the company, the achievements over the 44 years of the group’s history reflect its innovative DNA and the work of a high-performance team. “Almeida Junior is in constant evolution. We are starting a new cycle of investments in our assets and always keeping an eye out for new opportunities,” says Jaimes Almeida Junior.

Almeida Junior is a 2023 Abrasce Award Finalist with four cases

The awards take place in São Paulo at the end of June

The company Almeida Junior is a finalist for the Abrasce 2023 Award with four cases in
three of the nine categories available by the organization of the award in the shopping mall
segment. The group was selected with cases on employee training focusing on customer
interaction, on facing the challenge of the post-pandemic for its employees and with two
fashion events, one that covers an innovation hub in the area and another focused on the
inclusion of blind people in events like this. The award ceremony will take place in São
Paulo, on June 27th.

The four cases chosen as finalists by the judging committee for the award are part of
the categories ‘People Management’, ‘Events and Promotions’, and ‘Newton Rique of
Sustainability’ – ESG’. Organized by the Brazilian Association of Shopping Centers (Abrasce),
the purpose of the award is to recognize the innovative projects developed by Brazilian
shopping malls in the areas of social, environmental and economic transformation.
In the ‘People Management’ category, the case selected was ‘O pós-pandemia e o
desafio que valorizou a Employee Experience no Grupo Almeida Junior [The post-pandemic
and the challenge that enhanced the Employee Experience at the Almeida Junior Group]’.
The main objective of the project was to bring the family network of its employees closer to
the work environment in the resumption of in person work in June 2021. In order to
strengthen the company-employee-family bond in 2022, the group started to implement
new actions of proximity and engagement with families. Commemorative dates were
contemplated with the realization of special actions between workers and their families, in
addition to awards between employees and children.

In the ‘Events and Promotions’ category, two cases were classified as finalists. The
employee training project ‘AJ Encanta: antecipando o futuro da relação com o cliente
[anticipating the future of customer relations]’, took place in 2022 and reached 600 network
employees. AJ Encanta was conceived with the purpose of engaging the company’s
employees so that their services generate customer enchantment. A series of practical and
theoretical training stages were applied, in addition to manuals and pocket guides with
everyday situations to guide employees in customer service.

Another project highlighted in the category was ‘Garten Shopping vira hub de
Inovação na moda, com evento Startup Weekend Fashion Tech [Garten Shopping becomes a
fashion innovation hub, with a Startup Weekend Fashion Tech event]’, which brought
together fashion and technology, aiming at fostering an entrepreneurial culture and creating
new businesses in the fashion tech area in Joinville. The event’s differential was its venue, a
shopping mall, which enabled a direct connection between the developed solutions, fashion
and retail market shopkeepers and the consumer. The event featured the creation of 14
innovative projects in a period of just 54 hours and the participation of around 150 people.

In the ‘Newton Rique of Sustainability – ESG’ category, the case ‘A inclusão na
passarela do Norte Fashion Way: um desfile de moda para os cegos “verem” [Inclusion on
the catwalk of the Norte Fashion Way: a fashion show for the blind to “see”]’ was chosen as
a finalist. Between August and September 2022, the Norte Fashion Way event took place at
Norte Shopping of Blumenau, with the participation of more than 20 brands from the malls.
The shopping mall pioneered the use of the See Colors system at the event, a program
developed exclusively for blind people to identify colors through a tactile code printed on
the labels and on the items themselves. In addition to the See Color labels, the event had
the participation of visually impaired models, who walked down the catwalk using the audio
description technique for the audience present. Furthermore, a special lounge was set up to
explain the See Color technology to the public.

For Almeida Junior’s Director of Marketing and Relationships, Rafael Fiedler, being
among the finalists for an award like Abrasce’s is very significant. “We entered four cases
and the four were classified as finalists, which proves the value of the experiences
generated. One of the main values of our company is to innovate and do things differently,
we always seek to improve work environments and customer service, in addition to
innovating with projects and events. Being recognized in these fields encourages us to
continue promoting change in our shopping malls”, he points out.

Almeida Junior promotes experiences that invite the public to “live for real”

Manifesto will guide the actions of the six malls of the group throughout the year

Living for real means living it up, living your time to the fullest, living with intensity the moments of leisure with family and friends or even alone. And it is to invite the public to “live for real” that Almeida Junior, the largest network of shopping centers in the south of the country, has just launched a manifesto that will guide actions for the six malls of the group throughout this year. The campaign is multiplatform and will be prominently present on television and social networks. A great production of Almeida Junior, with images that promote the union of the beauties of Santa Catarina with the best of the group’s malls, as true equipment for leisure, fun and culture.

It is an invitation for Almeida Junior to occupy more and more the role of protagonist in the life of Santa Catarina in the most diverse areas, such as fashion, gastronomy, culture, shopping and leisure. And more than being present in the lives of Santa Catarina for this, Almeida Junior wants to provoke people to live for real, enjoy, have fun, give themselves to new experiences and sensations, gather family, friends, people they love, to actually live for real.

The first actions of the campaign “Live for real” will focus on Mother’s Day, now in May, but the group already has several actions scheduled to be promoted throughout the year, to make all customers of Almeida Junior malls live for real every moment, be accompanied by the people they love or be alone in a moment of leisure.

In 2022, the group focused on the mindset brought on by the post-pandemic period, where there was a great desire from people to get out of their homes and enjoy life. All the research indicated the appreciation of human contact to enjoy every moment and live the now more than ever. Within this reasoning and context, the concept “Live what there is to live” was born. In 2023, after the euphoria of the return to free movement, the consumer is demanding more from face-to-face consumer experiences  and the phygital, a term used to refer to the union of the words physical and digital in business is increasingly consolidated.

Therefore, the House of Almeida Junior thought the campaign on two fronts. First, valuing the mall for enhanced consumer experiences, as well as living in it as an environment of leisure, convenience and gastronomy. Second, reinforce and further enhance AJFans, Almeida Junior’s application and relationship program, focusing on offering alternatives in the omnichannel and improving shopping experiences.

“If in 2022 we proposed to people: “live what there is to live”, in 2023 we will say that living these moments has to be for real. Live now, and not in the future, since the present is a true present. It is an approach that adds to the old concept the following connotation: if you are going to live this experience, make the most of it,” explains the director of Marketing and Relationship at Almeida Junior, Rafael Fiedler.

Almeida Junior
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