Porcelanosa, the ceramics that opted for glamour: "Offers to sell are daily"
There are those who will wonder what a company associated with luxury like Porcelanosa is doing giving King Felipe VI a bicycle.. The monarch took a personalized one from his recent visit to the group's facilities in Villarreal (Castellón) on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. And the history of the bicycle is the history of this ceramic giant. Its appearance in 1973 in the middle of this municipality, which until then had basically lived off the cultivation of citrus fruits, not only spurred and revolutionized an entire sector. Porcelanosa has been one of the greatest exponents of the Spanish tile industry for half a century. A global brand with a thousand points of sale in 134 countries.. and with the blue bicycle as a means of transportation for its workers.
The anecdote serves well to explain how the company chaired by Héctor Colonques has managed to remain faithful to its principles throughout this time.. The bicycle that employees still use today to travel around the factories is the same model that José Soriano, one of the founders of Porcelanosa along with the Colonques brothers (Héctor and Manuel), began using 50 years ago.. Died in a traffic accident in 2000, Soriano is still remembered pedaling tirelessly from one side of the factory to the other.
The bicycle is not the only thing that remains unchanged at Porcelanosa, which, in recent years of the voracious appetite of investment funds for the ceramic sector, has managed to remain a “totally Spanish and family-owned” firm, as highlighted by its president before Felipe VI.. He said this because “the offers to sell are daily,” the vice president and CEO of Porcelanosa, Silvestre Segarra, admits to Actualidad Económica.. Married to María José Soriano, CEO of the firm and daughter of José Soriano, Segarra also carries behind him the story of another of the best-known family sagas in Castellón, since his grandfather founded the Segarra footwear factory.
The manager has been focused on Porcelanosa for more than three decades, so he knows what he is talking about: “We have been tempted by many groups, but the vocation of the partners is to remain as they were on the first day, being a family business made up of capital Spanish”. There is no nostalgia or romanticism, but economic results and a consolidated turnover of 970 million euros annually. “If things have gone well for us like this, why do we have to change now? We don't see the point,” he reasons.
“We believe in this strategy because it has worked well for us, although we are not a typical family business because two families [the Colonques and the Soriano Manzanets] participate and, over the generations, there are almost ten different ones.. That's why we have always behaved more like a normal commercial company than like a family business,” explains Segarra.. “It is strange to reach turnover and internationalization like ours, but we continue like this because all the agents who participate in this business movement have benefited: shareholders, employees, suppliers, clients…”.
In fact, shareholder stability has been maintained even after the departure of Manuel Colonques from the presidency and the board of directors.. His separation almost two years ago occurred quietly when he agreed with the rest of the partners to reduce his weight in the group's shareholding and the sale of 10% of Porcelanosa to the holding company itself.. For many, he was the architect of the milestone of associating the brand with the image of luxury through Isabel Preysler.. However, Segarra denies any hint of a traumatic process: “Manuel decided to step away, along with his children, from the day-to-day running of the company and get rid of part of his shareholding package, but not all of it.”. As a partner, he continues to have a stake and his separation was carried out absolutely naturally.. They are things of the passing of the years, of what one wants to do in their future.. There was no more.”
What Porcelanosa is really looking at now with some concern is the economic reality and, in particular, the cooling of the real estate market. The reason is simple: half of the tile manufacturer's sales are made up of other products such as kitchen and bathroom furniture, screens, sanitaryware…. “What worries us all the most is the paralysis of the housing market,” acknowledges Segarra.
“The rise in mortgages impacts us firsthand because people stop buying homes and the market paralyzes, which slows us down”. Segarra confirms the obvious: “We are not immune to the ups and downs of the economy, because we are not in a bubble”. In this sense, he does not dare to predict how Porcelanosa will close this year, although he suggests a certain optimism: “It is difficult to know how we will finish between now and December, but I think it will be with a little growth.”
Although the year 2022 was the perfect storm, it could not withstand the company. And the foundations came to shake with the greatest international reputation crisis that Porcelanosa faced.. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, put it in the eye of the storm when, in a speech in the Congress of Deputies, he accused Villarreal's firm for continuing to trade with Russia.
“I highly doubt that he was the one who wrote the speech,” says Segarra, who went in person to the Ukrainian embassy in Madrid to clear up the misunderstanding.. “The mistake came from their advisors, who interpreted the exports to Russia as meaning that we had direct operations in this country, that is, our own stores, but we have never had them.. We responded as we always try to do, with light and stenographers, showing our faces and explaining the reality. “There is nothing to hide.”
What's more, although 60% of Porcelanosa's exports go to the United States, France, the United Kingdom and Mexico (the remaining 40% is distributed among a hundred countries), Porcelanosa directly renounced the Russian market: “It was a significant loss “We exported about 25 million euros”. Segarra defends that the step was taken voluntarily to contain the reputational damage, even though neither white-body ceramic nor porcelain flooring were subject to sanctions.. “But after everything that happened, we prefer to stop exporting to that country.”
Porcelanosa ended 2022 with profits of 44.4 million euros. It was able to overcome the inflationary spiral, which made raw materials between 15 and 20% more expensive, and the energy overcost when the price of gas skyrocketed due to the war in Ukraine.. As if that were not enough, the clays used for the tiles also came from this country. “And, despite everything, inflation could not be passed on to the final consumer, which has gone against the income statement,” highlights Segarra.. “It's still a difficult time.”
That dark clouds appear on the horizon does not prevent the company from thinking about the future. The founders already did it in the beginning when they launched white-body ceramics on the market.. That was a turning point that allowed Porcelanosa to make a qualitative leap and differentiate itself from the competition.. “Being able to make facing tiles with white body was the first milestone”. Very few factories had achieved it. “It was a difficult formulation but it gave many advantages, because the designs could be captured better on it than on red paste,” he explains.
In terms of technology, Porcelanosa was also ahead of its time when it caught up with Italy, which was the world leader in those early years of the Castellón firm and today continues to be the main competitor.. The technical revolution today involves continuous piece production, up to three meters long and two meters wide.
Porcelanosa also added another innovation that should not be disregarded to the extent that it explains where it is today.. Because, how can you sell a piece of clay as a luxury item? Marketing made history and, with it, Isabel Preysler's goldmine. In the 80s she was the greatest exponent of elegance in Spain and Porcelanosa achieved that halo of sophistication for itself.. The international leap would later come from the hand of the then prince and now King Charles III of England, with whose foundations Porcelanosa continues to collaborate.. The Castellón firm is an official supplier to the British royal family.
The company that located its most spectacular flagship in the historic Commodore Criterion in New York – Richard Gere and Carolina Herrera were present at its inauguration – could not fail to have its eye on the Asian market, currently the most attractive for Segarra.. The China office has been trying to strengthen expansion in the Asian giant for a decade now. Because? The manager gives the answer with a laugh: “There are approximately 30 million Chinese billionaires.”
Growing via Asia is the objective. It is not, however, to grow through acquisitions. “We have never used them as a growth strategy. We have always preferred to start a new branch of business from scratch to understand and detect their needs.” They did it, for example, with toilets. “Everything evolves and everything changes and we are open to everything, but now we do not have any purchase in mind to grow”.
Thus, if Segarra is asked about Porcelanosa's future plans, his answer is eloquent: “To do in the next 50 years the same thing that we have done in the first 50.”