A few minutes from the beaches of l'Estartit and under the silhouette of the Montgrí massif, is the headquarters of Panini Spain, in the Girona municipality of Torroella de Montgrí. From here, and also from its warehouse in Celrà, the company coordinates the distribution of more than 100 million packets a year throughout the Iberian Peninsula.
The company employs 93 people, 27 of them in logistics, in a constant flow of pallets, boxes and collections that change every season. From Baix Empordà, Panini drives a business that ranges from football and Disney stickers, to Marvel or DC Comics comics, sticker books, and books such as Sophie la Girafe or The Little Prince.
"We have about sixty active collections each year between Spain and Portugal," explains the director of Panini Spain, Lluís Torrent, at 76 years old. "Football continues to be a great driver, but each season new surprises appear: series, movies or characters that become phenomena."
The origin: from Modena to the world
The history of Panini begins in Modena, in post-war Italy. A humble family made up offour brothers and four sistersshe lived subletting two rooms. "They were extremely poor —explains Torrent—. Umberto, the eldest, decided to emigrate to Venezuela, while the others tried to survive."
The turn of destiny came thanks to a gesture of generosity. One of the sisters worked as a maid for a lawyer who also ran a kiosk. After the war, the man offered her the business in exchange for a bicycle for his son. Since they couldn't pay for it, he himself proposed: "Keep the kiosk, and when you can, give me the bicycle."
Giuseppe Panini took the reins. He started by distributing newspapers, convinced local publishers to let him manage sales in other parts of Modena, and little by little, discovered the power of collections. In Milan, someone had tried to create a collection of football stickers without success. Giuseppe Panini sensed that this concept could succeed and went for it.
When Umberto was in America, his siblings wrote him a letter asking him to return, telling him: "L'America è qua." The Panini phenomenon had just been born.
From Modena to Torroella de Montgrí: the unexpected bridge that brought Panini to Spain
During the first years, Panini tried to make its way in Spain by collaborating with different local publishers, but the experience was not easy. "They didn't get paid —recalls Lluís Torrent—. They said that working with Spain was a drama."The turning point came thanks to a Belgian businessman, Raphaël de Latre du Bosqueau, who had founded Ediciones Panini Bélgica in 1970 and maintained a close relationship with the Panini family. De Latre, in love with the Costa Brava, spent long periods in Begur, where he would eventually meet a young local entrepreneur named Lluís Torrent, who at the time was beginning his professional career in real estate.
"One day he asked me for help with a problem he had with his house's swimming pool —recalls Torrent—. I only acted as a translator between him and the technicians, but he was delighted."
Weeks later, Torrent was preparing a new real estate project in l'Estartit and contacted the Belgian again. "He bought two apartments from me instantly. Shortly after, I traveled to Brussels with my partner Jaume Bruguera to sign the contract, he received me with a Rolls-Royce and talked to me for hours about Panini," he explains.
That conversation would be the beginning of a long collaboration. De Latre saw in the young Catalan businessman the ideal person to bring Panini stickers to Spain. "During a dinner in Begur, he pointed at me and exclaimed: 'C'est toi!' ('It's you!')", explains Torrent.
In 1979, at barely thirty years old, Torrent, along with his partners De Latre and Jaume Bruguera, began distributing Panini collections in Spain through his company Cromo Crom, located in Torroella de Montgrí, which would eventually become Panini's subsidiary in Spain. The first collection was Moto Sport, imported from Italy. "We knew nothing and sold more than 10 million packets," Torrent recalls.
Then came successes and failures: The Rescuers barely reached 150,000 packets, but Beauty and the Beast broke all records with 55 million packets sold.
One of the most remembered stories was that of Dragon Ball Z. "I saw it was being broadcast on TV3 and it cost me a fortune to get the license that the French had. But I succeeded, and it was a huge hit."
In parallel, Panini acquired other companies, such as Colecciones Este, which held the license for La Liga. "When José Alegret Biosca of Colecciones Este decided to retire, we bought the company and maintained the tradition. Today, the La Liga collection has been published for 54 years."
Crisis, resurrection, and global expansion
In 1988, the Panini brothers sold the company to the British magnate Robert Maxwell, a character as powerful as he was controversial. "He was the worst thing that could have happened to us," admits Torrent. "He died in never-clarified circumstances and the company was left without direction."For months, Torrent and a French colleague took over temporary management from Modena, while the company sought stability. Years later, the group would be acquired by the Italian consortium Bain, Gallo, Cuneo and De Agostini and, later, by an investment fund.
Today, Panini is present in 120 countries. From the headquarters in Torroella de Montgrí, operations in Spain and Portugal are coordinated.
The ritual of opening a packet
The secret to Panini's success, says Torrent, lies in something as simple as it is emotional: the physical act of opening a packet, seeing what's inside, and being able to exchange the duplicates.During the pandemic, the lockdown interrupted this exchange and sales fell. "A journalist even wrote that Panini was dead. He was completely wrong," he explains. As soon as normality resumed, the market revived. Today, the company sells over 100 million packets annually on the peninsula.
A phenomenon that unites generations
"The football album is not just a collection of stickers. The child who collects does so with their father, grandfather, or uncle. When that child grows up and has children, they do it again," says Torrent.That emotional component explains why physical collecting remains unbeatable. In the United States, Torrent explains, "a Messi card has been auctioned for 5 million dollars, and limited editions have become true cult objects."
Panini has adapted to the new century: in addition to classic albums, it publishes Marvel and DC Comics comics, edits children's books, and enters into special collaborations with brands like Mondelez.
At 76 years old, Lluis Torrent continues as General Director of Panini and remains involved in the real estate and tourism sectors. "I don't feel like retiring," he says with a laugh. The Panini brothers have all passed away, but their legacy lives on. From a small kiosk in Modena to the headquarters in Torroella de Montgrí, the story of Panini is the story of a dream made into a collection.