Growth in agriculture does not always depend on watering more, but on watering better. When water is applied too quickly, it does not infiltrate well and ends up being lost; when it is sustained, it transforms the land. This same idea runs through the strategy of MatHolding, a Catalan group specialized in technologies for agriculture and water, based on gradual industrial investment, a constant pace of acquisitions in recent years, and a clearly long-term vision. A strategy that, for the moment, has been accompanied by record results: the group has doubled its turnover in a decade and, since 2019, sales have grown at an average rate of 9% per year.
Thus, they closed 2025 with 429 million euros in turnover —6% more than the previous year— and 65 million in Ebitda. A year marked not only by good results, but also by the 90th anniversary of the parent company, Industrias Químicas del Vallès. The group's origin dates back to 1935, when the Matosas family —still owners of the group today— founded the company to manufacture copper salts for the treatment of vineyards in Mollet del Vallès.
Since then, growth has been sustained over the years, with particularly intense development in the last two decades, during which the group has managed to double its turnover through the acquisition and integration of companies worldwide. Today, that chemical company has become a large industrial group with a presence in 149 markets. But behind this evolution is a "very defined" strategy, according to MatHolding's president, Pau Relat. "The figures are a record not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively," he summarizes.
Today the group structures its activity into two main divisions: agro and water. The first represents about 60% of the business and is articulated under the Cerestia brand, created last year to integrate the companies of IQV (the historical parent company), Regaber, TerraNostra, Vegga and Altinco, a company based in Mollerussa and acquired by MatHolding at the end of 2025. The second division, which integrates Aquestia, STF and Hidroglobal, already represents 40% of the business, with a trajectory of sustained growth.
Two different divisions that share, however, the same philosophy. "We must be able to produce more with less, both in food and in water use," says Relat. This idea translates into a combination of biosanitary products for the field, filtration and water control technologies, and solutions aimed at optimizing every drop of water within MatHolding. 
As an example of this sustained irrigation, Relat has cited the trajectory of TerraNostra, the division for the modernization and transformation of farms within Cerestia, focused on obtaining maximum performance from exploitations through technical solutions and more efficient and sustainable agricultural management. Created in 2022 and with more than a thousand hectares of olive and almond groves under development on farms in Extremadura, its objective is to accompany farmers in the transition from traditional models to intensive systems, using techniques such as precision irrigation, efficient fertilization, plant nutrition, biostimulation, phytosanitary protection, or digitalization.
"We want long-term relationships with owners, not one-off contracts," assures Relat. This is a change of role that seeks to consolidate MatHolding as an integral player within the agricultural chain. In this sense, the TerraNostra project is already looking beyond Extremadura and plans to extend its activity to the Terres de l'Ebre, where the group is studying possible relationships with agricultural owners.
Industrial investment and sustained expansion with 500 million on the horizon
In a global environment marked by conflicts such as those in Ukraine or the Middle East, the group asserts the management of uncertainty as part of its DNA. In this sense, this "sustained irrigation" strategy is also a way of facing this context: growing gradually and diversified. "We assume that uncertainty has no beginning or end," says Relat.
The group's investment strategy also responds to this same logic: sustained but selective. Since 2019, MatHolding has invested more than 147 million euros between the technological reinforcement of its plants and the acquisition of new companies. In 2025 alone, the group has invested 44 million euros, almost half of which are linked to the purchase of Altinco, as well as to the improvement of the productive capacity of its plants in China and India, focused on filtration and water control. "The will has always been leadership in technological innovation, but it only makes sense if it is accompanied by cost efficiency," says Relat.
For this year, Relat assures that the group "does not have an urgent need to buy, but we are always in conversations." The objective, he explains, is not to grow in volume, but to incorporate assets that strategically fit with the group's services. For these reasons, Relat defends that MatHolding does not contemplate, for now, either divestments or an IPO. "These are dynamics incompatible with a long-term industrial project," defends the president. Looking ahead to 2026, however, the group maintains the objective of reaching 500 million euros in turnover, faithful to a philosophy of sustained and patient growth.
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