When Jordi Mercader Miró became president of the Miquel y Costas paper mill, the Barcelona Olympic Games had not yet been held. He was running the month of May 1992. This Monday, 31 years later, the president announced that he was giving up the position to his son Jordi Mercader Barata. The proposal must be validated by the general meeting of shareholders on June 22.
"There will not be a revolution, but an evolution," said the future president in a meeting with the press in Barcelona. Mercader Barata was until now executive vice president of the paper mill. His father will remain a member of the board of directors: "I will be a Sunday director like any other." Proprietary directors are directors who represent the shareholders of the company. In this case, Mercader Miró has a little more than 17% of the capital.
The new president arrives with an investment plan of 100 million euros between 2024 and 2027. His father leaves the presidency when he is 80 years old and a little later than he thought. He said he felt "in top form", while explaining that a few years ago he had decided to give up the presidency, but the impact that the energy crisis had on the company made it advisable to wait so as not to send a message of weakness to the markets.
This 2023, the firm will complete the previous three-year investment plan of also 100 million. The most outstanding project is the improvement of the production process of one of the machines at the Pobla de Claramunt (Barcelona) factory, which produces paper for the food industry, car batteries and decorative laminate, although it will also 10 million to the Celesa plant in Tortosa (Tarragona), 8 to the Capellades warehouse (Barcelona) and another 8 to the Mislata (Valencia).
The new president assured that the business strategy will be based on four pillars: commitment to quality, innovation, sustainability and financial strength. "This year we close the three-year investment period and we have to think about the one that will go from 2024 to 2027, in which we bet on organic and inorganic growth," he said.
Specifically, the company will be "attentive", as he said, to the opportunities that may arise from competing companies with debt problems and with assets that may be of interest to Miquel and Costas. Although the future president said that "what we will not do is buy a problem", referring to the fact that acquisitions must be well-founded. In 2022, sales grew by 12%, to 337.2 million.
