business

The company sells high end clothing on the Internet. It distributes over 25.000 items of clothing daily amongst its 3,7 million clients. The centre will deliver on demand from Spain and Italy.

The Spanish Government will invest 25.4 billion euros up until 2020 in this strategic railway infrastructure for goods transportation that will link Spain’s Mediterranean seaports with Central and Northern Europe. The European Commission has to decide in the next 3 months whether the transport axis is a European priority.

The new employees hired will be people currently out of work. The Spanish car manufacturer, which is part of the Volkswagen group, has its factory in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area. SEAT will for the next five years invest 300 million euros annually.

The company will initially invest between 12 and 14 million euros in a logistics centre, with an expansion possibility in the near future. The Chinese multinational company specialising in the tire, rubber and shoe industries chose Barcelona as its base to enter the European and North African markets.

Production will be transferred to the country of origin of the group, Italy. The Catalan motorbike brand Derbi was bought in 2001 by Piaggio. The decision affects more than 230 jobs.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary urges the Catalan Government to pay 11,5 million euros to the airline if it wants Girona’s airport to see all its Ryanair flights back from October onwards. O’Leary says that the Irish company cancelled 28% of its routes from Girona for the Spring/Summer season due to the “lack of commitment” from the new Catalan executive.

At the end of January, the Japanese motorbike company announced its decision and this week it issued its mass layoff plan. Yamaha will concentrate all its European production in its French factory. The Catalan factory was making profit and trade unions have stressed that the decision is only based on the company’s strategy. Yamaha will keep its commercial offices in Catalonia.

FC Barcelona and SEIKO have signed an agreement by which the Japanese brand is to become FC Barcelona’s Official Time-Keeping Partner and will benefit from marketing and visibility rights for the next three years. This agreement was signed on March 1.

The Catalan multinational car components company Ficosa increased its sales in the US and Mexico by 20%. Ficosa is also expanding its Viladecavalls plant in the South of Barcelona to turn it into an international technological centre. The Catalan company will have more than 28% of the North-American market share of car mirrors.

Scott Sage (UK Investor): "Barcelona has been our focal point in Spain". A group of companies from the Catalan capital attended a meeting with investors in the United Kingdom.

CatalunyaCaixa won 109.1 million euros in 2010, 1.1% less than in 2009. The second Catalan savings bank is the result from the merger of Caixa Catalunya, Caixa Tarragona and Caixa Manresa. The resulting savings bank currently has 6.9% of core capital, far from the needed 10% by next September. The savings bank already announced its plans to become a regular bank.

Thanks to exports, 2010 was a great year for the Catalan cava industry. The total revenue reached 1,031 million euros, 10.87% more than 2009.

The industrial holding of the main Catalan savings bank, ‘la Caixa’, made 1,823 million euros of net profit in 2010. Criteria will be the embryo of La Caixa’s new private bank, which will be called CaixaBank.

The Catalan company, which manages transport infrastructures, increased its net profit by 6.1% in comparison to 2009. Abertis announced yesterday it would split its business in two different companies.

Despite volcanic ash clouds and air traffic controllers’ strikes The Catalan airline increased its net profit by 66% in comparison with 2009. In 2011, the company plans to increase by 15% its number of flights and passengers.