The trade of Joan Font: "Doing business is generating wealth and playing fair"

There are moments in life that are never forgotten, and there are stories that almost intertwine in time and space. 1992 was the year of the Barcelona Olympic Games and the first Champions League for that Barça team captained by Johan Cruyff at Wembley, but it was also the year that Bon Preu gathered its management team led by Joan Font in Montanyà ---"Cruyff's spiritual refuge"--- for a weekend to outline the present and future of their group.

"I was 41 years old and we met in Montanyà to write down the values and how Bon Preu should operate. Honesty, pragmatism, teamwork, fair play, willingness to serve, a positive attitude, and a long-term vision were valid then, and surely will continue to be in 50 years. We wrote it then and we maintain it today," explains Joan Font in a new session of True Leaders organized by The New Barcelona Post and EY to learn firsthand about different business leaders and their success stories in an exclusive environment with entrepreneurs, top executives, and founders.

We begin with some reflections drawn from Joan Font's words on what it exactly means to be an entrepreneur, to build a company, and what its impact is on society.

• Being an entrepreneur is doing and measuring what is done, not talking about it.
• Being an entrepreneur is not arguing or wanting to be right.
• Being an entrepreneur is making decisions in uncertainty, without having all the information, sometimes with opposing positions from colleagues, partly relying on intuition and trying to make the right decision.
• Whoever has the ultimate responsibility has the obligation to decide, and growing means not making mistakes when making certain decisions.
• Building a company is generating wealth, playing fair, and thinking long-term.
• Building a company is strategy and pragmatism.
• Building a company is building a team and not trusting saviors of the homeland.
• Talent, dedication, and effort make companies move forward.
• It is essential to have good competitive companies, investment, jobs, and pay taxes if we want a quality country in health, education, research, or infrastructure, while also taking good care of groups that are not in good conditions.

Joan Font is rarely seen in public, but when he is, he leaves no one indifferent. He is the founder, CEO, and chairman of Grupo Bon Preu. He is a Catalan businessman with instinct, confidence, strategy, and emotional proximity. Although he is not obsessed with growth, he also assures that he wants to grow as much as he can. He was advised to sell the company during the euro crisis or the pandemic, but he decided to move forward. He often champions talent and skilled workers, as well as rights, but also duties.

His story is widely known: son of a cod merchant and a shopkeeper, from Torelló (Osona) and from the family of boy scouts with whom he traveled through 1970s Europe in a Citroën 2CV, he worked by day and studied surveying and commercial teaching by night. In 1974, he opened the first Bon Preu self-service store in Manlleu in a 200-square-meter shop. More than 50 years later, Bon Preu, based in Les Masies de Voltregà, has a turnover of more than 2.250 million euros, a workforce of almost 11,000 employees, a network of more than 200 stores, and has invested more than 1.150 million euros over the last decade.

The strategy in food, fuels, and electricity

What are the keys to Bon Preu's successful strategy? There are many, but to give just a few examples, we could talk about the commercial model based on a commitment to the territory and emotional proximity, the zero-kilometer model, the defense of Catalan, the competitiveness and profitability of its business, or the 1.1 million people who have the Catalan company's loyalty card. "We realized that the million households that give us their trust in food also consumed other services or products. And 25 years ago, we opened the first gas station in Vic. Today we have more than 60 and we are the leading fuel operator in Catalonia outside the big multinationals," Font recalls. As if it were yesterday, and it's already a quarter of a century ago.

Bon Preu's business involves food distribution, fuels, and electricity

Everything is often a matter of trust in a broad sense of the word, and also of learning from mistakes as an art to move forward. Electricity has been a real acid test in the case of Bon Preu. This is revealed by the first-person account of its founder: "We have made many mistakes, but making hedges in the electricity market at a time of volatility was a big mistake, and the ball hit the post resoundingly. It was expensive for us, and we are still paying for it. Electricity customers have very different needs, there is a lot of diversity, and we have to create products adapted to each group. Strong in food, good position in fuels and in the process of construction in the electricity sector." In fact, making electricity available at almost zero cost to homes and businesses is one of its great challenges for the present and future.

Gold, loss, and talent

Data is often referred to as the gold or fuel of the 21st century, and its management is key to the competitiveness of any company. What does the customer want, what are their consumption habits, or how do they behave inside a store? Bon Preu has software that predicts demand with a high degree of precision in sales for each store ---there are more than 200--- and for each reference ---more than 30,000---, as well as its stock. Redundantly, unknown loss (expiration, shrinkage, etc.) is a little-known concept, but key for any food business, since it accounts for around 2% of the sector's turnover (approximately 50 million euros for Bon Preu). It is important to know what is gained, but also what is lost. According to Font, "managing unknown loss allows us to also manage food waste, and generative AI will be a fundamental element of competitiveness."

In the not-too-distant future, Bon Preu will be able to automate administrative, logistics, and management tasks and, in fact, it already has an office working on it: "AI will help us process data much faster, predict what the customer will do, and give them what they want. It will be fundamental to do it well in productivity and strategy."

"Having healthy growth means not making mistakes when making certain decisions"

And what better strategy than that of themanagementhumanist, that is,people who are at the same time talent, effort or dedication. However, talent must be earned and its trust maintained. "Talent must be able to add value, be heard, and participate in the company culture. We need managers and employees who share the company's purpose and culture, but also who are willing to challenge you if necessary. We try to make internal promotions before hiring externally, and we want to generate talent. We dedicate a lot of money to training programs and we don't sign only for monetary reasons, but for model and added value," he points out. In fact, Bon Preu has four trade schools.

Growing with purpose

According to Font, "having healthy growth means not making mistakes when making certain decisions. We have made many mistakes, but we have not made big errors and we have learned from them." In this sense, he insists that Bon Preu will never have franchises that "exploit misery" and, therefore, in his opinion, it is completely non-negotiable to control sales points, comply with schedules or the corresponding salary and, if necessary, stop doing certain corporate operations. Simply put: "May everything we buy be worthwhile, profitable, and generate wealth". Looking back, buying Intermarché's business in Spain was "a success" for Bon Preu, which managed to make a prominent network of stores profitable that had lost money and assets for almost 20 years. "If another operation like this comes up in Catalonia or Spain, we will do it, but it has to interest us by asset and by price," he explains.

Buying Intermarché's business in Spain was "a success" for Bon Preu and another similar operation in Catalonia or Spain that is interesting by asset and by price is not ruled out

Let's go into detail. Bon Preu's organic growth strategymeans buying premises rather than renting them and investing with own resources and ten-year debt.We do more purchase operations than we open, but we cannot own many premises or open stores. This happens because we have the administrations we have and it can take us 8 or 12 years to open a supermarket. We have an operation from 2002 and another from 2004 that are bought and paid for, but are still sunbathing and enjoying the fresh air," he warns, shortly before pointing to the excess bureaucracy and its impact on companies and society. We will come back to that later.

Thanks to the stock market!

To list or not to list? That is not the question. Joan Font is very clear that Bon Preu does not need to finance itself on the stock market because there are other channels that are equally or more efficient for growth. "We have never stopped an operation due to lack of resources. We are very happy that competitors are on the stock market, because they often make mistakes, lose focus, change the management team and do not maintain the strategy. This is how they disorient the customer the most. One of the great strengths of family businesses with a long-term view is that we are not concerned with paying dividends. We will not list on the stock market," he reflects.

Operations inside and outside Catalonia?

Maintaining the focus of the strategy by following the values set in Montanyà is vital for Bon Preu, which is studying potential operations inside and outside Catalonia. The territorial objective is very clear: "We have been looking outside Catalonia for some time and we could open a store in Madrid, Galicia or Bilbao, but we prefer other corporate operations with price and assets that allow us to move faster. If we leave Catalonia, we will have to adapt the model to the territory where we go, because the manufacturer brand, fresh produce or emotional proximity is different. It is common sense, and we will not lose our way by appearing in the newspapers either."

A quality country with an efficient Administration

The need to reform the Administration is a business and social outcry. Always far from the media spotlight, Joan Font prefers to leave the spotlight to academics on how this reform should be carried out, but he does claim that, "if we want a quality country, we cannot have the Administration we have." It is clear. This is the initial diagnosis, but the reflection goes a little further: "The Administration has to be efficient. Citizens' resources cannot be wasted, and right now there are inefficiencies. We need more money for hospitals, universities, research, and disadvantaged groups. Wasting public resources is an outrage. Politicians know it, but they don't dare to propose a thorough reform of the Administration." In this sense, we will see how far the work of the Forum of Entities for the Reform of the Administration (FERA) and its common sense can go.

"The Administration has to be efficient. Wasting public resources is an outrage"

Public-private collaboration is also "an pending issue" beyond the success story of Fira de Barcelona.According to Font, "collaboration between the public and private sectors should be a shared purpose. Everything companies can do to help administrations provide value and criteria on governance is good. Companies have experience in managing and administering resources, and we do not expect to make any profit. The Administration should ask those who truly know to design successful projects like Fira de Barcelona."

I'm saving a question for the end that goes beyond Bon Preu or civil society: the investor facet. Joan Font has invested in Tattox, Tropicfeel, Pangea, Parlem or Worldcoo through Ona Capital, a venture capital firm he owns 50% with Benito. "I wouldn't leave all these companies because we have a good time and they work well, why do we have to sell? That's how the world is, and consultants already know it: capital has to move and commissions have to be paid," he assures. Capital moves, and not always for a matter of price. "One has a good time doing business," Font concludes with a smile before the attentive gaze of the audience, who are already eager to ask questions.

It's question time and, not to drag on too much longer, a summary of the big hits:

• Challenge accepted: "We have a very complex business and every day there are problems in the stores, but we have to be able to tackle this complexity and prevent some inefficiencies from repeating. It is one of our winning cards against multinational competitors listed on the stock exchange."
• The problem: "With absenteeism, we have a bad piece. The vast majority of workers are good and honest, but those who are not must be socially penalized. Absenteeism is a serious problem of values and of the country and it must be solved. What hurts absenteeism the most is the pressure from colleagues when they realize that someone is faking absenteeism."
• Rights and duties: "We are going wrong if the social discourse that prevails is that work is not important, we have a right to everything and we don't have to make an effort. Things don't fall from the sky. There are rights and duties."
• The narrative: "We must prioritize effort, dedication, well-done work and give the maximum that each one can give."
• The need: "Now it doesn't have much glamour to dedicate oneself to certain tasks, but we need skilled people and this is being lost. We need fishmongers, butchers, greengrocers, and bakers."
• Learning: "The more training, the better, and training has an impact on the self-esteem and responsibility of the person being trained."