Creating a new company is not an easy task, but neither is it to make it survive over the years, especially in times of crisis or when a pandemic suddenly breaks out. The Billingham Group, whose origins date back to 1975, is part of the group of companies that manage to avoid the dustbin of history. However, the initial company has nothing to do with the current one. The name is not the same either.
"My father set up a small leather goods workshop, but he ended up specializing in the manufacture of bags and backpacks, until China took over the world's textile production," explains Dámaso Curto, the group's current executive director. “We had a hard time –adds Curto– until we saw a new business opportunity in the orders we kept receiving from companies that asked us for bags and backpacks as advertising gifts”. In this way, they went from being manufacturers to importers of articles to which they added the brand of the companies. It was the nineties of the last century, a decade in which the founder's sons joined the company: Dámaso Curto and Francisco Curto. It was also at the end of the nineties when the company stopped being called Curbus to adopt its current name.
Beyond the start of the generational change and the name change, the biggest step forward for the Billingham Group was its commitment to create an online store in 2002, when electronic commerce was still in its infancy in the country. "We were pioneers in our sector and thanks to this early penetration of the Internet we have become leaders in Spain," says Dámaso Curto.
After surviving the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the Billingham Group had to face the health crisis unleashed by the covid, in 2020. Once again, the company knew how to survive by redirecting its activity towards the sale of masks, gels hydroalcoholic, gloves... With the end of the pandemic, the group has returned to corporate promotional gifts, but with 10,000 new customers, who were attracted by the sale of sanitary products during the pandemic. The greater number of clients is reflected in the turnover, which has gone from 3.9 million euros in 2020 to 6 million euros in 2022. The company, which has its fiscal headquarters in Barcelona, has a workforce of 15 people.
