Business

The Catalan company announced on Monday that it will start working in Japan, the world's second-largest market for travel agencies. The Barcelona-based firm highlighted "the importance and potential" of Japan, hoping to gain a high market share within the country. Starting business activities in Japan represents "a gigantic step" for eDreams' internationalisation strategy, stated the company. The land of the rising sun is considered to be the largest travel market in the Asia-Pacific region. eDreams' total amount of online bookings is some $30.8 billion. The company expects this type of booking to represent 40% of total bookings by the end of the current year. Including Japan, eDreams operates in 44 different countries, on 5 different continents.

For the first time in seven years, the number of houses and flats being built in Catalonia has increased. The figures for 2014 show that between 4,300 and 4,500 new properties have appeared on the market after seven years of decline. According to Lluís Marsà, President of the Promoters Association of Barcelona, the housing market is recovering due to the improving economy. Marsà says there is still one big obstacle remaining to consolidate the recovery of the sector: “The lack of bank financing which keeps people from purchasing new housing.” While this is a positive development, the housing market has still a long way to go. According to Marsà, “it will probably take 3 or 4 years to fully recover.”

Prices in Catalonia dropped by 1.4% in January compared to the figures for December, which represents the biggest monthly decrease ever registered on the records of the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE) (since 2002, when comparable data started to be compiled). Furthermore, the annual inflation rate posted at the end of February reached -0.9%, which is the lowest figure since July 2009, in the middle of the first economic recession. The sustained decrease of oil prices is the main reason for such results and Catalonia has now accumulated 3 consecutive months with negative rates within the Consumption Price Index (IPC) in annual terms. In Spain as a whole, prices dropped by 1.6% in monthly terms at the end of January, which is also the biggest decrease within the series of comparable records. Furthermore, Spain’s annual inflation reached -1.3%, the lowest since July 2007. 

Barcelona’s office rental sector is improving after years of decline. Real estate company Inmobiliaria Colonial has set the tone by releasing 23 million new shares. Colonial is one of Europe’s leading companies in the office rental market and besides the new shares, they have also bought the main office of food multinational company Gallina Blanca. The property, positioned on L’Hopitalet del Llobregat’s Plaça Europa, one of Greater Barcelona’s business districts, has an area of almost 5,000 square metres and has been sold for €10.4 million. The shares and the purchase both belong to a new strategy to recover from the crisis and get the market back on track.

The multinational Catalan fragrance company Puig has won its perfume imitation lawsuit against Saphir, a company from Zaragoza dedicated to commercialising imitations of known fragrances. The Trademark Court from Alicante found Saphire guilty of “unfair competition” and ordered the Zaragozan company to remove its products from the market and destroy them. Puig accused Saphir of selling brands called ‘Saphir’, ‘Caravan’ and ‘IAP’ specifying that they were imitations of Carolina Herrera, Paco Rabanne and Nina Ricci, international brands run by Puig.

Another positive figure has emerged to confirm the economic recovery after years of crisis. Catalonia’s GDP grew by 1.2% over the course of 2014, which are the best figures since 2007, before the financial crisis, according to early data released on Thursday by the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat) and the Catalan Finance Ministry. The figure is higher than the 0.9% economic growth foreseen in the Catalan Government’s budget for 2014 (approved in late 2013) but is lower than an early forecast made in March, when a 1.5% growth was predicted. Besides this growth in the Catalan economy, in Spain as a whole, the economy grew by 1.4%, according to early data released by the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE). Furthermore, the Catalan economy grew by 0.4% in the last quarter of 2014 compared to September figures and by 1.5% in annual terms. In the first, second, and third quarters it grew by 0.5%, 0.4%, and 0.3% respectively (in quarterly terms).

Gas Gas, a motorcycle manufacturer from Girona Province, has ceased production after a creditors meeting at the Mercantile Court.  The company says it has to interrupt the production chain due to difficulties in restructuring a €20 million debt. Gas Gas confirms that, after seven months of failed negotiations with banks in order to restructure the debt and get additional funds, last week it seemed that progress was being made in the hope of reaching an agreement. Meanwhile, the Catalan company has filed a pre-bankruptcy request and has ceased production, but they hope to reach an agreement soon and get back to business once again.

Registered unemployment in Catalonia grew by 6,821 people by the end of January, compared to figures from December. However, it is the lowest increase since 2007 for a month in which many seasonal contracts related to Christmas sales end. Furthermore, more good news comes in the form of the 8.06% drop in annual terms posted in January and the fact that registered unemployment has been decreasing for the last 19 consecutive months in annual terms. However, registered unemployment has also been increasing in monthly terms for the last 3 consecutive months (November, December and January). In the whole of Spain, registered unemployment increased by 77,980 people compared to a month ago, also the lowest increase for this time of year since 2007.

The Catalan Parliament delivered a petition to the Constitutional Court in order to defend the Catalan law on opening hours for shops, which is more restrictive than the Spanish one. Catalonia is trying to preserve its small urban shops model, where most of the shops are run by families. The Spanish Government passed a reform in 2012 forcing Catalonia to allow longer opening hours. In 2013, the Catalan Executive promoted a new bill to invalidate the Spanish one. The new law was approved with 80% support in the Catalan Parliament in January 2014, but the Spanish Government appealed against it a few months later, and the Constitutional Court suspended the Catalan text in late 2014. 

For the first time in 7 years, in 2014 Catalan shops increased their overall sales figures compared to the previous year, growing by 1.4%. Furthermore, the figures are even more positive looking at the sales in December, which grew by 7.4% compared to the same month in 2013, according to data released on Thursday by the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE). The Catalan figures are better than the Spanish average, both for 2014’s overall figures and for those from December. In Spain as a whole, retail increased by 0.9% last year and by 5.4% in December. The worst year for Catalonia’s retail sector was 2011, when sales dropped by 6.2% in annual terms. Other years, they stagnated, such as in 2010. 

The low-cost airline Norwegian Air Shuttle announced it may connect Barcelona to 5 United States cities by 2016: San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Orlando. The cheapest roundtrip tickets would be less than $300, stated the Scandinavian company’s Founder and CEO, Bjorn Kjos. The announcement was made on the day Norwegian unveiled its headquarters for Southern Europe, based at Barcelona El Prat Airport. The low-cost airline has transformed the Catalan capital’s main airport into one of its main operational bases worldwide. In 2014 alone, Norwegian increased by 36% the number of passengers it transported through the airport. Last year, Barcelona El Prat broke its passenger record with 37.5 million people. The Catalan Minister for Transport, Santi Vila, stressed that Norwegian’s plans contribute to transforming Barcelona El Prat into an intercontinental hub.

The multinational company Roberlo, based in the Girona Province, has acquired the British enterprise Chemfix. Roberlo, which manufactures chemicals for the construction and automobile industries, expects to increase its profits by 30% this year with this transaction, reaching 65 million euros. 85% of the Catalan company’s turnover moves into foreign markets, so this purchase contributes to its internationalisation. The aim of the Girona-based company is to be one of the top three European producers which use chemical docking, an industrial technology.The business has two factories in Girona, one in Brazil, one in Russia and now, one in the UK. The Catalan group has ten subsidiaries and employs 400 people, 200 of which are located abroad.

2,160,646 passengers passed through Girona Costa Brava Airport in 2014, a 21.1% decrease over 2013. This figure, according to Aena, the Spanish Airport Authority, is the lowest since the low-cost Irish airline, Ryanair, began operating at the airport in 2004. From the record breaking 5.5 million passengers in 2008, the infrastructure has suffered six consecutive years of decline, coinciding with Ryanair’s arrival at Barcelona El Prat and the increase of its operation from Catalonia’s main airport.However, the 2014 data report from Aena showed that 90,364 tonnes of air freight were transported from Girona airport, an increase of 97.3% over the previous year.

Catalonia posted a 19.88% unemployment rate at the end of 2014, almost 4 percentage points lower than the rate for the whole of Spain, which was 23.70%. On 31 December 2014, there were 756,500 unemployed people in Catalonia, which represents 83,000 less jobseekers than a year ago, according to the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE). Despite the positive annual results, unemployment increased by 30,500 people in quarterly terms, compared to figures from the end of September 2014. Back then, Catalonia's unemployment rate was 19.10%. In terms of jobs, the Catalan economy ended 2014 with 49,300 more people in employment than at the end of 2013, reaching 3,048,100 workers. The Catalan Government is said to be "moderately optimistic" with the figures and highlighted that both 2014 and 2013 ended with less unemployed in annual terms, accumulating two consecutive years of decreased numbers.

The Catalan Government presented this week a first draft of the urban plan that is developing for the 800 hectares surrounding PortAventura theme park, in the Costa Daurada, near Tarragona. The $6 billion holiday resort BCN World is supposed to be built in this area, which is now being promoted by the Catalan Executive itself after the private investor Veremonte did not meet the final deadline for buying the land in December. The urban plan foresees towers of 20 to 25 floors and the construction of 500,000 square metres of tourist and residential-use areas between the Las Vegas style casinos and the beach. Veremonte and its partners Melco, Hard Rock, Caesar’s Entertainment, Melià and Value Retail continue to be involved in the project, along with other investors such as Investindusrial (which owns PortAventura), Ferrari (which wants to build its first European theme park there) and Perelada (which owns other casinos and luxury hotels in Catalonia).