Barcelona's business fabric is growing, and it is not doing so only in the Catalan capital or driven by a specific area, but rather it is doing so in a distributed manner across all the regions of the province and in all economic sectors. Specifically, companies with registered offices in the municipalities of Barcelona saw their turnover increase by 19.7% in 2022 compared to the previous year, and estimates contemplate an increase of 9.2% for 2023.
In this context, the more than 98,000 companies in the province invoiced a total of 348,680 million euros in 2022, which represented the most significant year-on-year jump in the historical series of the report Estructura empresarial de la demarcación de Barcelona (Business Structure of the Barcelona Demarcation), which has been prepared since 2014 by the Diputación de Barcelona in collaboration with the Manresa City Council.
The study, which analyzes data from 2022 as it is the last complete closed fiscal year available, estimates that for 2023, the turnover of Barcelona companies will reach 380,626 million euros, the highest figure to date. In addition, companies in Barcelona municipalities account for 81% of the turnover of commercial companies based in Catalonia, while the territory encompasses 73% of the Catalan population.
"The evolution of turnover is an indicator of the satisfactory evolution of our business fabric," highlighted the delegated deputy for the Economic Development and Tourism area of the Diputación de Barcelona, Ana María Martínez. The also mayor of Rubí presented the report together with Manresa councilor Luis Vidal Sixto, and its authors Ramon Culleré and Josep Maria Canals, who also directs the Xarxa d'Observatoris del Desenvolupament Econòmic Local (Network of Local Economic Development Observatories) of the Diputación.
The fact that the growing trend occurred in all regions and in all sectors is also decisive. In fact, 2022 was the first year since the pandemic in which all sectors grew. Between 2019 and 2020, only six sectors saw their turnover grow, and from 2020 to 2021, 33 did so, while in 2022, positive data extended to all 38 sectors analyzed by the study.
Thus, this report reflects the consolidation of the pandemic recovery and the positive evolution of the Barcelona economy. This trend also reaches the sectors that most reduced their turnover with Covid: hospitality, with a 79% increase in turnover in 2022, and artistic and recreational activities, with 46% more.
The sector that led invoicing in the province in 2022 was specialized wholesale trade of goods and intermediate products, which accounted for 9.3% of invoicing. With 7.6% of the total, the second sector was chemical and pharmaceutical, which dropped from the first position it held in 2020. This decrease is not due to lower invoicing in the sector, but to a more pronounced increase in wholesale trade of goods and intermediate products, as Canals explained.
Wholesale trade of food and beverages (6.5%), food and beverage products (5.9%), and wholesale trade of household products (5.5%) complete the top 5. They are followed by transport and storage (5%), motor vehicles and other transport materials (4.2%), professional, scientific, and technical activities (4.2%), vehicle sales and repair (3.7%), and wholesale trade of ICT and machinery (3.5%). These top ten sectors concentrate 55.3% of the invoicing of all economic activity in the Barcelona regions.
Barcelonès concentrated 43% of commercial companies and 40% of the province's business volumeAlthough positive data was recorded in all regions, some stood out above average, such as Lluçanès, Baix Llobregat, Maresme, Barcelonès, Bages, and Anoia. The ones that added the most invoicing were, as in 2021, Barcelonès, Baix Llobregat, and Vallès Occidental. In fact, Barcelonès concentrated 43% of the commercial companies in the Barcelona regions, and 40% of the business volume, in addition to 46% of employment, with 656,776 workers. In total, companies in the demarcation generate more than 1.41 million jobs,which represented an increase of 5.2% compared to 2021.
The business fabric of the province of Barcelona is mainly made up of companies that bill less than one million euros, which represent 73% of the total. However, there are large companies in its municipalities, and 250 of them —0.25% of the companies— concentrate 38% of the total turnover. Among them, 28 companies bill more than one billion euros annually, which represents 17.9% of the business volume of commercial companies in the province.
The companies with the highest turnover
The company that leads the ranking is Seat, with more than 10,500 million in turnover. At a certain distance, it is followed by Lidl Supermercados (6,079 million) and Carburantes Axoil (4,325). Among the 25 companies with the highest turnover in 2022, 22 remained from the previous year, and three new ones entered the ranking: Synnex Spain, which moved its registered office from Alcobendas to Barcelona, where it had already had it; Meroil and Biomar Oil.
By municipalities, the ranking of turnover per capita is led by Santa Maria de Miralles, where Petromiralles is based and with 8.6 million euros, followed by Les Masies de Voltregà, where La Farga and Bon Preu are located, with 1.2 million. Gurb, with Casa Tarradellas and 778,502 euros; Castellbisbal, with Compañía Española de Laminación and 419,660 euros, and Martorell, with 402,405 euros and with Seat, complete the top 5 of turnover per capita in the province.
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