business

In 2014 in Catalonia, not only has there been a rise in the number of overnight hotel stays but also a substantial growth in the number of visitors. Hotel figures show 50,018,636 overnight stays last year, a 1.5% increase over 2013. Catalan hotels received a total of 16,754,342 visitors, an increase of 3.4% over last year. The Catalan tourism infrastructure played host to 62% foreign residents (10.3 million) and 38% (6.3 million) of residents from Spain. December is increasingly becoming an important month as the number of overnight stays climbed to around 2 million (1,983,259), which represents 6.1% more than the same month in 2013 and the highest rate ever recorded for this period of the year. Catalonia remains above the average rate for Spain, as its occupation rate is 56.2%, whereas that of Spain overall is 54.8%.

Nearly 40,000 fashion enthusiasts of all ages visited the Maritime Museum of Barcelona last week for the 15th edition of the 080 Fashion week. The 4-day fashion event drew to a satisfying end after hosting shows from prestigious brands, with the likes of Desigual and Custo taking to the crowded catwalk. Most of the fun was found in the open area, with free refreshments and make-overs for all, thanks to a tagged Instagram post as the key to receiving these treats. As well as a host of celebrities and well-known fashion bloggers in the front rows, big names in the modelling world such as Jon Kortajarena and Andres Velencoso showcased the most popular collections for Autumn/Winter 2015.

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).

The second day of the 080 Barcelona Fashion Week gathered together young designers and big brands. Desigual closed out the day, as Mango did on Monday, by showing its exclusive menswear collection. Kristina Pimenova, the 9 year old girl named as the most beautiful child in the world, failed to appear on the catwalk due to bureaucratic problems. Sporting looks combined with wool and silk were the dominant styles of the day. Not only did politicians, actors and Spanish celebrities descend upon the event, but also bloggers and instagrammers who now have a reserved seat at the shows. 

The brand Sita Murt showed that, despite the recent death of renowned designer Sita Murt, they are still able to present a remarkable collection and will continue her work with exclusive designs for women, sold throughout the world. The collection presented women’s trends for the Fall/Winter season 2015/2016. The catwalk took place in the Catalan capital’s Maritime Museum, which is hosting the 15^th edition of the 080 Barcelona Fashion Week. Isabel Esteve Murt, head designer of the brand, stated that she is implementing Sita Murt’s way of adding details. Isabel is Sita Murt’s daughter and has taken her mother’s place by taking over control of the brand. She claimed in an interview that the collection had a British influence that could be seen in the shoes, trousers and colours.

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.

The Catalan Government’s Deputy Minister for External Affairs, Roger Albinyana, announced the Executive’s aim to have a network of “about 50 delegations” throughout the world, representing Catalonia’s political, business and cultural interests abroad. The Catalan Government currently has 7 delegations abroad, after the new representations in Rome and Vienna start to work on Monday, when the representatives were appointed. The 5 others are located in Brussels, London, Paris, Berlin and Washington. In the coming “months and years”, the Catalan Government will continue to open new delegations. Regardless of the hypothetical independence from Spain, the Catalan Executive already has the powers to have its own External Action policy, recognised by the Catalan Statute of Autonomy from 2006, although with many limitations.

José Manuel Lara Bosch, President and partial owner of the Barcelona-based Grupo Planeta – the world’s largest publisher in Spanish language – died on Saturday in the Catalan capital aged 68, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. His funeral was held on Monday in Barcelona and it brought together top representatives from Catalonia’s and Spain’s political, business, media and cultural worlds. Grupo Planeta owns many publishing houses as well as TV channels, radio stations and newspapers. It also grants each year the biggest prize in Spanish literature. In the late 1960s, Lara Bosch started to hold top positions in the family’s publishing house Planeta, founded by his father. In the 1980s, he was behind the business’ expansion, buying many publishing houses. His brother’s early death in 1995 made him become the group’s ‘number 2’ after his father, who passed away in 2003. In the 1990s and 2000s, Bosch transformed Planeta into a multimedia giant.

This week Barcelona welcomes international figures in fashion and the media for the 15^th edition of the 080 Barcelona Fashion Week, taking place from Monday the 2nd until Thursday the 5th. Over 30 designers will showcase their new Autumn/Winter creations over four days. For the first time, the show will be held in the Maritime Museum of Barcelona (a Gothic building once home to the Royal Shipyard), where both upcoming talent and Catalan favourites like Desigual and Mango are set to own the catwalk. Besides, the Sita Murt brand will present the first collection since the death of the Catalan designer in last December.

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. 

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.

Indignation at the Castor Project has increased due to the €1.35 billion payment issued by the Spanish Government to Escal UGS, the company behind the controversial offshore gas platform. The amount will be charged through gas bills to consumers over the next 30 years, starting on April 2016, making individual citizens pay the private-business bailout, partially funded through €1.4 billion worth of bonds from the European Union. This business project failed after a gas injection caused almost 1,000 small earthquakes in Southern Catalonia and northern Valencia. The Spanish Executive has been forced to compensate the company due to clause 14 of the 2008 Royal Decree, according to which the state would pay for the bailout in the event of the project failing to come to completion.