"Walker, your footprints are the path and nothing more; walker, there is no path, the path is made by walking." This is the powerful message of one of Antonio Machado's great poems: our vital path is not defined, but is built as we walk and advance. But this is also the simple, yet complicated, recipe and business philosophy of Joaquim Uriach, fifth generation at the helm of the pharmaceutical company Uriach, popular for medicines such as Fisiocrem, Aquilea or Biodramina. The keys to leading a family business with almost 200 years of history and a turnover of almost 500 million euros? Walking, taking steps, little by little, but without stopping or losing sight of the vision, the meaning and, most importantly, the passion.
"Uriach has survived two republics, a civil war, two world wars, a dictatorship... and a pandemic!" And it is that the history of the Catalan pharmaceutical company dates back to 1838, when Juan Uriach began his professional career in a small drugstore in the Born neighborhood. A place that, little by little, became too small and that, almost 200 years later, has become a large company that closed the 2024 financial year with a turnover of more than 476 million euros —54% more than the previous year—.
The secret to overcoming adversity and instability? "Facing projects with meaning, with enthusiasm and passion, and with the mission and objective of transmitting a valuable legacy to subsequent generations." "A recipe as simple as it is complicated" summarized Joaquim Uriach (Barcelona, 1966) in a meeting organized by the Associació de Joves Empresaris de Catalunya (AIJEC) which, periodically, invites leaders and executives who can serve as inspiration for young entrepreneurs in their professional and vital path. The businessman, who served as president of the Uriach Group between 2012 and 2021, represents the fifth generation of this long family saga, along with his other four Uriach Torelló siblings —the only shareholders of the company, in addition to the British fund ICG, which holds 30% of the capital—.
"The concept of legacy is an idea that we have very integrated into Uriach, but not as a burden, but as an opportunity. The opportunity to transmit, from generation to generation, a company with ever more value." And it is on this legacy, transmitted from children to parents, since Joaquim's great-great-grandfather promoted the pharmaceutical company, that the project is built.
Thus, Joaquim and his four siblings continued this project based on brave decisions made by their father, who decided to "prune the business family tree," buying all the shares and "simplifying the complexity of the family business," a business he later bequeathed to his five children. A bravery that this fifth generation at the head of the business group has also applied, basing their management on three fundamental pillars: reorienting the strategic focus, professionalization, and internationalization. All with the purpose of growing the company, which already employs 1,400 workers —350 in Catalonia— with subsidiaries in eleven countries, and transmitting a greater legacy to the next generation.
Strategic focus, professionalization, and internationalization
Courage to reorient the family business and change Uriach's strategic focus, replacing his father's R&D and innovation approach with new medicines with a strategy focused on OTC medicines (over-the-counter medicines, for the English acronym of over the counter) and the segment natural consumer healthcare. That is, reorienting the commercial strategy towards natural products, over-the-counter medicines, and food supplements such as Fisiocrem or Aero-red.A segment in which they already "had a small foot," since they have been manufacturing and marketing Biodramina, for the prevention of motion sickness, since 1952, but which they considered could be the company's big bet for the future, as it was a growing segment throughout Europe. "Abandoning the R&D focus, which had cost my father so much effort to build, was not easy," Uriach said. "If betting on R&D continues to be a brave decision today, it was even more so when my father created this department within the company in 1958," the executive highlighted to the members of AIJEC.
However, the five siblings soon detected that basing the business's commercial strategy on the creation and distribution of new medicines was too risky a bet both economically and technically. "Only one in every hundred thousand molecules that a researcher examines under the microscope actually ends up reaching the market," Uriach remarked. For this reason, the five siblings understood that they had to change the company's strategic focus and bet on over-the-counter medicines, which would not depend on public regulations or "political mandates."
And although, at first, it was difficult to convince his father of this strategic change, another of the values that have marked Uriach and his career has been "trust, when my father trusted his children and their business acumen, but also now, when we delegate our trust to an external CEO to the family." However, the strategic change was not easy, "nor was it taken overnight, but rather it was built, like the entire project, little by little, taking small steps, but with determination," the businessman summarized.
Precisely trust and professionalization was another of the company's bets: incorporating an external CEO to the family and an advisory board made up of independent professionals. "A step that is not always obvious in family businesses, and even more so when the five siblings work in the company," Uriach recalled.
But brave decisions are not exempt from risk or errors. Because when you make your way as you go, trying and moving forward, you also make mistakes. "Thus, for example, when we incorporated the first external CEO, it didn't work, because we brothers didn't know how to fully withdraw and not constantly meddle. But we learned. And when we did it again, and looked for another CEO, it worked because there was mutual trust," admitted the one who was president of the pharmaceutical group until 2021.
The third pillar of Joaquim Uriach's leadership, internationalization, has been the natural consequence of this calm vital and business philosophy, shaped by small decisions that build a path with meaning and purpose. Today, Uriach distributes its products in 80 countries around the world and expects to close the 2025 fiscal year with a turnover of more than 500 million euros.
And without forgetting passion
This enormous legacy is what they now leave to the sixth generation of the family and business lineage, made up of twelve cousins, who must continue taking small steps to make this centenary saga great. Twelve cousins who, however, do not work directly at a management level in Uriach, although they will join the family council. "Uriach should not be a sofa, where one comfortably rests and receives money, but rather it should be a driver and a springboard," the businessman claimed.A springboard from which to jump into different projects. Thus, "each person of this sixth generation, even if they know that tomorrow they will become shareholders, must undertake their personal and professional project," Uriach defended, showing pride in the different paths that the twelve professionals who are part of this sixth generation are taking, explaining, as an example, the recent presentation of a doctoral thesis by one of his daughters.
In this professional journey, Uriach also encourages the sixth generation to "lead initiatives for free and altruistically with the purpose of serving others," the businessman remarked. Thus, for example, since 2022 Joaquim Uriach presides over the Palau de la Música Catalana, as an example of these altruistic actions but with purpose, meaning and, above all, passion.
A member of the Orfeó since 1998, and a member of the Board of Directors since 2010, Uriach defends the "transformative power of music and its contribution to our personal spirit." This commitment represents for Vicenç del Mar, president of AIJEC since September —when the entity renewed its board—, a clear example that "leadership can also integrate a humanist vision." Because these altruistic and humanist projects are also part of the vital path that, step by step, without haste, but with meaning, is being built. Because only, thus, by walking, one advances.