More than 1,200 senior executives and retail professionals from Mexico, Colombia, and Ecuador gathered throughout May 2026 to hear a clear warning: "The digital transformation of businesses is no longer negotiable. We must adapt to a new digital consumer or we will simply disappear."

The one who said this was Laureano Turienzo, president of the Spanish Retail Association (AER), CEO of Retail N1, and recognized as the world's leading Spanish-speaking retail expert. He did this as part of an international tour organized alongside Zumex, which has been leading and defining the freshly squeezed juice category at the point of sale for over 40 years, covering Mexico City (May 11–12), Bogotá (May 14–15), and Medellin with five consecutive conferences.

The result was a unique experience: global strategy, applied technology, and a real success case rewriting the rules of fresh retail around the world.

A High-Level Scenario

The chosen cities and venues for the tour were no coincidence. Among the audience were executives and leaders from some of the continent's major distribution companies: Walmart, Chedraui, Circle K, La Comer, Coppel, El Puerto de Liverpool, Oxxo, Grupo Éxito, and Corporación Favorita, among others. A representation that reflects the importance of the message being delivered.

The format combined a keynote speech by Laureano Turienzo on global retail trends with the presentation of Zumex's success case, followed by private networking sessions and one-to-one meetings to explore specific business opportunities.

The Five Great Forces Reshaping Retail

1. Artificial Intelligence: the Greatest Change in Habits in History

Turienzo placed AI's emergence at the center of his analysis. "There have always been changes, but never at today's speed," he emphasized, comparing the current moment to technological milestones like the printing press, the steam engine, or electricity. The difference, he insisted, is that none of these advances happened at this speed.

AI is already transforming retail in specific and measurable areas:

• Hyper-personalization and purchase recommendations, thanks to the analysis of history, searches, and real-time consumer behavior.
• Virtual assistants and chatbots in customer service, reducing response times and increasing satisfaction.
• Improvements in logistics and demand forecasting, with algorithms optimizing inventories and reducing waste.
• Dynamic pricing: systems are already able to evaluate competitor prices, current demand, and buyer profiles in real-time to adjust prices and maximize profitability.
• Artificial vision for security: fraud detection and theft prevention in physical stores.

2. The Data Explosion

One of the major axes of the presentation was the role of data as "the new electricity" of retail. The capacity to generate, process, and act on data is growing exponentially: an explosion of global data volume is expected to grow more than 12 times between 2020 and 2035, according to projections analyzed in the conference.

Retailers already exploiting this capacity—with traffic systems, in-store behavior analysis, and predictive models—are creating a competitive distance that will be very hard to bridge.

3. The New Consumer: Living in Small Needs

Turienzo described a consumer radically different from just a decade ago: a buyer seeking immediacy, convenience, and personalization; who shops across multiple channels without distinguishing between physical and digital; and who increasingly makes decisions based on values: health, sustainability, and product origin.

The rise of neighborhood proximity and high-frequency local stores directly responds to this trend. The consumer doesn't want to travel: they want quality products to come to them.

4. The Unstoppable Rise of Private Label

One of the most notable phenomena was the global advance of private label (MDD) and the start of what Turienzo called its "luxurization": large chains are no longer betting solely on a competitive price private label, but on distributor proposals with premium attributes, ingredient origins, careful packaging, and brand narrative.

Spain's number 1 retailer, with more than 81% of its assortment in private labels and a market share of 27% in Spain (revenue of 41.858 billion euros in 2025), is the global reference case in this model.

5. Responsible Consumption and Sustainability

The conferences also addressed the transition toward more responsible consumption: consumers, especially the younger ones, demand that retailers adopt real commitments to sustainability, zero food waste, and product traceability. It is not a secondary trend: it's an exigency directly entering the purchase decision processes.

The Game-Changing Success Case: Spain's Largest Retailer and Zumex

If there was one moment that captured the attention of the 1,200 executives present on the tour, it was the presentation of this success case. A study that Laureano Turienzo defined as "the most successful private label launch in the history of global retail".

Why so emphatic? The numbers explain it.

The Starting Point

Spain's number 1 retailer faced a challenge familiar to many distributors: the fruit and vegetable section as a space of low profitability per square meter, high waste, and little differentiation. Orange juice was a category practically stagnant, with low added value and dominated by manufacturer brands.

The decision was radical: to transform this category with freshly squeezed juice at the point of sale, using Zumex's technology, and to integrate it within its private label offering.

The deployment started in 5 pilot supermarkets and grew to 1,600 stores in the chain. Results came quickly.

📊 Highlighted Results of the Case

Nearly half of the new fresh juice buyers did not previously purchase juices in the store: they were customers looking for freshness outside the establishment. The initiative not only captured existing demand; it created an entirely new revenue stream.

The space dedicated to fresh juice became one of the most profitable square meters of the entire store, and the shopping experience in the fruit and vegetable section improved dramatically, with increased traffic and customer dwell time.

Zitrux: The Technology That Makes the Business Profitable from Day One

The technological heart of this entire model is Zitrux, Zumex's fresh juice machine with self-cleaning. A solution designed specifically to make freshly squeezed juice a profitable and operationally sustainable business at the point of sale.

Zitrux's value proposition rests on three operational pillars:

• Smart self-washing: guaranteed hygiene without employee dependency.
• Minimal intervention: frees store staff from intensive cleaning tasks.
• Operational peace of mind: extends available service time.

But where Zitrux truly marks a competitive difference is in the daily operation numbers.

Most fresh juice operations drag hidden costs silently eroding the real margin: excessive manual staff intervention, operational dependency on operators, and invisible items that typically don't enter any cost-benefit analysis.

The reality, when the numbers are laid out, is striking:

320 hours per year lost just on manual cleaning tasks. Equivalent to 40 full working days dedicated to non-productive tasks, and 7,040 euros annually focused solely on avoidable operational costs.

Zitrux resolves this problem at its root. Its smart self-washing system reduces the time staff spends cleaning the machine from 1 hour to just 10 minutes, freeing up that time for higher-value tasks in the store.

"The difference is not the machine's price, but the cost of operating it every day." — Zumex

In other words: Zitrux's higher acquisition price is more than recovered through operational efficiency. It is not a higher cost; it is an investment with demonstrated and quantified return.

"We are not a juice brand. We are a technology partner helping retailers win the fresh retail battle." — Manfred Berbel, Zumex Global Chief Sales & Marketing Officer.

Why Latin America is the Market of the Moment

Laureano Turienzo dedicates a significant part of his activity to Latin America, and not by chance. The region concentrates unique attractions for the sector:

• 22 countries, nearly 700 million consumers and a combined GDP of 7.4 trillion dollars surpassed only by the US, China, and the European Union.
• It is the geographical and linguistic region with the highest expected growth potential in the coming years.
• Retail is the main economic dynamizing sector and job generator in these countries.
• The penetration of fresh juice consumption at the point of sale is still very low compared to European markets, representing a vast untapped opportunity.

Companies like Walmart (present with over 2,600 stores just in Mexico), Grupo Éxito in Colombia, or Corporación Favorita in Ecuador have the capacity, footprint, and vision to replicate this model in their own markets. And the financial equation is already demonstrated: the case of Spain's largest retailer is not an exception; it is a manual of action.

Final Reflections by Turienzo: The Retail to Come

At the end of the tour, Turienzo shared his reflections on what he experienced during these five days of conferences:

"Latin American retail is at a turning point. It has the resources, talent, and consumer. What is lacking, sometimes, is the courage to make real bets. The story of Zumex with Spain's largest retailer proves that when a distributor truly bets on fresh, technology, and customer experience, the results are spectacular."

Digital transformation is not optional. Private label is no longer a price alternative. Fresh is the new retail battlefield. And the companies best positioned to win that battlefield will be those making the right decisions today.

"There have always been changes", Turienzo recalled before the more than 1,200 executives present. "But never at today's speed." The tour was, in that sense, much more than a series of conferences: it was a call to action for a sector that has everything it needs to lead the next stage of global retail.

Do you want to bring this model to your business?

The "Future of Retail" Tour was the starting point for many conversations. If you want to explore how Zumex's Zitrux fresh juice solution can transform your fresh section, enhance your customers' experience, and boost profitability per square meter, Zumex's team is available for personalized consultancy.

👉 Contact Zumex 👉 Follow Laureano Turienzo on LinkedIn

Sources: FRS Food Retail & Service (05/19/2026) · Alimentaria Magazine · Zumex Group · "Retail Trends and Success Cases – LATAM Tour 2026" presentation by Laureano Turienzo · Zitrux profitability data (Zumex, 2026) · Worldpanel by Numerator (Mercadona market share, 2025).