The topic of taxation in Spain is one of the hottest. And, regarding this, the president of Mercadona, Juan Roig, spoke out today, stating that “it is not a problem for a businessman to pay a lot of taxes”, since they are “proud to do so” but rather that “the problem is how they are managed”. In relation to this, he has defended that the business community creates employment and wealth and “if there is wealth and we know how to manage it, there is well-being”, but that “what happens is that we have to know how to manage it and that is no longer up to us. It is up to us to demand that it be managed well but not to manage it.”
The statements were made during the congress of consumer companies AECOC, during his conference ‘The pride of being an entrepreneur’, in which he encouraged attendees to “come out of the closet, to be leaders”, because “it is a pride to be an entrepreneur because we are the ones who move the world, the companies, the entrepreneurs, the workers”, but “what we have to do is believe it.” Likewise, it has invited us to ask ourselves what they can do for Spain, instead of thinking what Spain can do for them.
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“Making profits is essential for a businessman, but it cannot be his main purpose, it is not healthy, but it is the only way to satisfy the worker, to reinvest, and that is why we must feel proud and be a reference in civil society,” he added in this regard.
Regarding this, he wanted to clarify that “earning money is necessary, it is mandatory and it is satisfactory”, since without it the worker cannot be satisfied, pay suppliers, taxes and distribute dividends.
The customer is “the one who has the power over the life or death of a company”
The president of Mercadona wanted to take advantage of his intervention to praise the role of AECOC in issues such as dialogue between distributors and manufacturers, the standardization of pallets or EDI and sustainability in waste management. “Less legislation and more compliance,” he stated, while ensuring that “there is no better association of manufacturers and distributors.”
Returning to business management, Roig explained that “the mission of a company is to satisfy, in this order, the boss (customer), worker, supplier, society and capital.”
“We believe that the five are equally important, but we must order them, and when we have any problem we analyze it from this point of view,” he stressed.
Along these lines, as he has defended on previous occasions, he has pointed out that “the boss for me is the customer”, being “the one who has the power over the life or death of a company. He wants us to fill his belly, personal and household cleanliness, but from our point of view what he wants is food safety, quality, service, assortment and budget.”
In reference to this issue, he indicated that, in his case, “we also want the client to be right, we do not want to have all the products on the market, but we have to select the best for the boss, and to achieve this we have to have trusted intersuppliers, who are specialists in what they do.”
Mercadona’s objectives
Regarding the future of Mercadona, Juan Roig has indicated as the main objectives “to continue fulfilling the routine work of being radical ‘totaler’, together with inter-suppliers”, to continue with the expansion in Portugal, a country that, in his opinion, “we do not look at as equals and is not treated as it deserves”, and to grow in the area of ’ready to eat’, a well-known bet of the businessman, who is convinced that “in the middle of the century there will not be “You almost cook at home.”
“If our great-great-grandmothers had had the technology we have now, they would not have cooked either. Humanity has advanced thanks to civil society, and life is better every day,” he stated in this regard.
Helped by DANA
Being Juan Roig from Valencia, he has also spoken out about DANA, lamenting that “a year ago we felt helpless.” “As far as I know, it was a natural phenomenon that could not be predicted… but what is worse is that later we felt helpless,” he added.
The businessman, one of the greatest fortunes in Spain, has also stated that he was inspired by seeing the photos of the thousands of volunteers who went to the affected areas to clean them and, in particular, the image of a hairdresser doing his work on the street.
“That inspired the Alçem-se (let’s get up) movement”, through which aid of 8,000 euros was distributed to 4,000 businessmen (around 35 million euros) with the only condition that they reopen their businesses, he wanted to explain, stating that this plan meant giving “many businessmen a glass of water in the desert.” He also highlighted that “there were nine people who, after having collected that aid, returned it because they were not going to open. People are very honest,” he concluded.