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El Corte Inglés has just placed 808 million among investors

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Santander and El Corte Inglés have sold 808 million euros in loans from their clients to institutional investors, as published The Confidential. Instead of keeping those loans on their books, they have packaged them and transferred them to investment funds. Why is it important. The department store doesn’t just sell washing machines or sofas: it finances its customers’ purchases for months or years without charging interest. These debts are converted into a financial asset that is then sold to investors in exchange for periodic payments. If someone doesn’t pay their loan, the problem is no longer yours. It is financial engineering applied in a very ingenious way to retail. How the business works. A brushstroke to understand it: El Corte Inglés sells you a TV for 1,000 euros and lets you pay for it in 10 months without interest. Instead of waiting 10 months to collect that 1,000 euros, package your debt with thousands of others and sell it to investors for, say, 950 euros. He collects the money immediately, eliminates the risk of you not paying, and can use that capital to finance more purchases. Investors pay 950 euros today and will collect 1,000 in 10 months. You still don’t pay interest. Everyone wins. What has happened. The operation was closed in the Dublin market and includes all types of credits: Interest-free financing for up to five years. Credit card debts. And small loans of 300 to 900 euros. Investors who buy these packages charge different interest rates depending on the risk they assume. In the largest section (664 million), they charge 0.87% above the Euribor. In the highest risk sections, the differential rises to 6.2%. Between the lines. By selling these credits, the financial company removes the risk from its balance sheet and frees up space to continue lending money. Banking regulators approve this type of operation because it spreads the risk throughout the financial system instead of concentrating it in a single entity. For Santander and El Corte Inglés, it is a way to grow without accumulating all the danger of defaults. The background. Santander bought 51% of the financial company of El Corte Inglés in 2013paying 140 million for control and another 140 million as an immediate dividend. The bank saw the potential clearly: the margins on consumer credit are much higher than those of traditional banking. El Corte Inglés maintains 49% without managing anything. A perfect capitalist partner. Yes, but. Financiera El Corte Inglés is not marginal: it handles nearly a third of the consumer banking business in Spain and Portugal. His loyalty card It has 11.7 million members who last year made purchases worth 3,778 million, both in department stores and in supermarkets and other subsidiaries. That customer base is a gold mine. The context. These operations have become increasingly popular in the Spanish financial sector. Santander has been the most active European bank packaging and selling loan portfolios. For an entity like Financiera El Corte Inglés, this mechanism not only frees capital: it also makes it possible to avoid regulatory limits on risk concentration. behind the scenes. The model reveals how the retail Spanish. The real margin is no longer just in selling a product, but in financing its purchase and then monetizing that debt by selling it to investment funds. El Corte Inglés sells televisions, but above all it sells credits. And then it sells the risk of those credits. Squaring the circle. Featured image | The English Court In Xataka | The two largest travel agencies in Spain fight to sell trips to Disney. This is the business of children’s dreams

The patch to avoid another massive blackout is going to cost us 731 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

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The blackout on April 28 did not come free, and we consumers are going to pay for it. Iberdrola has confirmed that the extra cost caused by the “reinforced mode” that was activated after the massive blackout. And everything indicates that the rest of the electric companies will follow in their footsteps. what has happened. They tell it in The World. Until now, the impact of the blackout on the bill had been limited because the CNMC intervened so that the electricity companies could not modify the price for customers who have contracted fixed rates. FACUA also issued a statement warning that rates could not be raised if it did not appear in the contract. The blackout was more than six months ago, more than enough time for many free market contracts to have been renewed. This has given Iberdrola the opportunity to introduce clauses that allow them to pass the cost on to customers. Reinforced mode After the blackout, the so-called “reinforced mode” was activated. This adjustment involves intervening in the market to incorporate more conventional energy (gas, hydroelectric and nuclear) and limiting the entry of renewables with the aim of avoiding voltage failures. And of course, these energies are more expensive, in addition to requiring more auxiliary services to stabilize the network. The problem is that this It started as a patch after the blackout, but it has become the new normal which remains half a year later. The cost. It covers from the blackout until September and amounts to 210 million euros distributed between Spain and Portugal. Of this sum, Spain assumes the majority, with 180 million euros. Iberdrola regrets that the change in the system by Red Eléctrica is entailing an extra cost that “affects our results” and they hope to transfer 70% of this amount to their clients before the end of the year. Not just Iberdrola. Nothing prevents the rest of the electricity marketers from following in Iberdrola’s footsteps. According to El Mundo, the total cost of the reinforced mode in these six months amounts to 731 million euros and it looks like it will remain active for longer, so this amount will increase. The CNMC warns that any change in contract prices must be communicated transparently. From one pocket to another. In the Iberian Peninsula there are five nuclear power plants, 1,300 hydroelectric plants and some 200 gas plants. These conventional (non-renewable) energy plants are providing more energy as long as the boosted mode remains active and they are receiving more income for it. What is striking is that they mostly belong to private companies such as Iberdrola, Naturgy either Endesawho are the ones who will end up increasing the price of the invoice. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Five months later we continue to discover things about the blackout in Spain. And the news is getting worse for Europe

It is the key to having a profit of 2,540 million euros

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The Irish airline has spent 2025 full of disputes with the Government and consumer associations. However, despite all these disagreements, the bold Michael O’Leary has managed to make Ryanair its model low cost remains extremely profitable. With a combination of an increase in the price of its tickets and an increase in the number of passengers, the company has ended the first fiscal semester painting its income statement green in a turbulent economic environment. Tail wind between so much turbulence. According to a statement published by the Irish company, between April and September 2025, Ryanair obtained a net profit of 2,540 million euros, which represents an increase of 42% compared to the 1,790 million obtained in the same period of the previous year. The airline’s total revenue grew by 13%, reaching €9.82 billion, thanks to increased prices and greater passenger traffic. Despite cuts in places offered at provincial airports on account of his raffles with Aena, The Irish company sold 16% more tickets, maintaining its capacity to attract more travelers in those airports in which it still operates. In total, the passenger traffic increased by 3%, reaching 119 million seats, a record figure for the company in this period. Rates through the roof. The 13% increase in the rates It is attributed, among other factors, to a favorable Easter that coincided with the start of the fiscal year for Ryanair, helping to recover the 7% drop in prices that was recorded in the second quarter of last year. In fact, the revenue per passenger grew 9% in the first semester. The increase in passengers together with the increase in fares has caused the income account to increase during the first six months of the year, a determining factor in the final balance. The secret: cost reduction. The increase in taxes and the price of fuel had a moderate impact on operating costs, which rose 4% in total to 6,960 million, which represents barely 1% per passenger, reflecting “strong control” of expenses by the company. O’Leary attributed a good part of this increase in operating costs to the increase in air traffic control fees, which are estimated at 14%. Much of this adjustment in costs derives from the supply of fuel, which the company has already secured 85% of its consumption estimate at a price of 76 dollars per barrel, while it has already advanced a supply of 80% of its demand for next year at a price of 67 dollars per barrel, thus taking advantage of the current low crude oil price. On the other hand, ancillary income, which is the most controversial among Ryanair passengers, which includes services such as priority boarding and on-board consumption, increased by 6%, totaling 2,910 million euros. These services account for almost 25% of the total billing. Only fly to profitable airports. Ryanair has also put its cards on the table for the second half of the fiscal year, and is clear that it is going to focus on “regions and airports that reduce taxes on aviation”, in clear reference to its withdrawal from provincial airports from Spain. On the other side of the board, countries such as Slovakia, Italy, Sweden, Albania or Morocco will monopolize the seats that are withdrawn from countries such as Germany, Austria or Spain, which have increased their airport taxes in 2025 and send a clear message in a political key: “We are concerned that Ursula von der Leyen (and her new Commission) have done nothing in the last 14 months to improve European competitiveness.” In Xataka | Spain and Ryanair are in a legal battle over the charge for hand luggage. Ryanair’s best ally: Europe Image | Ryanair

has signed an agreement with Amazon for 38,000 million dollars

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OpenAI has sealed an agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) worth $38 billion over the next seven years. This is the first major contract for the company responsible for ChatGPT with Amazon, and marks a turning point in its strategy: stop depending exclusively on Microsoft and, on the other hand, have access to infrastructure and computing capacity at any cost. Alliances. As explained from NYTfrom 2019 to 2023, OpenAI bought all of its computing capacity from Microsoft, its main investor, which has allocated $13 billion to the startup. The contract stated that OpenAI could only contract with other vendors if Microsoft approved. However, last week both companies renegotiated the termseliminating Microsoft’s preemptive right and allowing OpenAI to freely contract with any cloud provider. What does the agreement include?. OpenAI will immediately begin running operations on AWS infrastructure, using hundreds of thousands of Nvidia graphics processing units in the United States. According to Dave Brown, vice president of computing and machine learning services at AWS, “this is completely separate capacity that we are installing. Some of that capacity is already available and OpenAI is using it.” The first phase will employ existing AWS data centers, although Amazon will build additional infrastructure in the coming years. More investment in infrastructure. The movement adds to the race of massive spending by OpenAIwhich in recent weeks has announced deals worth approximately 1.4 trillion dollars with companies such as Nvidia, Broadcom, Oracle and Google. Added to this are projects for build new data centers together with OracleSoftBank and the United Arab Emirates, among others. The company also wanted to reaffirm its commitment to Microsoft, committing to purchase an additional $250 billion in Azure services. Signs of business maturity. For OpenAI, diversifying its cloud providers and ensuring long-term capacity represents a crucial step towards a more than likely IPO. Sam Altman, CEO of the company, recognized recently on a livestream that an IPO is “the most likely path” given the company’s capital needs. Furthermore, just as points out According to CNBC, CFO Sarah Friar said the recent corporate restructuring is a necessary step toward that goal. Doubts about the AI ​​bubble. While OpenAI and Big Tech increase their spending, Amazon, Google, Meta and Microsoft have already allocated more than $360 billion in capital investments last year, and some financial analysts They already warn of a possible bubble. As AI evolves in leaps and bounds and OpenAI generates billions in annual revenue, its huge infrastructure spending makes the company not yet profitable. However, the strong feeling of market enthusiasm around artificial intelligence means that the company continues to increase its value greatly. What it means for Amazon. The pact is significant not only because of its volume, but because AWS has close ties to Anthropicdirect rival of OpenAI. Amazon has invested billions in Anthropic and is building a data center campus of $11 billion in Indiana designed exclusively for your workloads. After now knowing this news, Amazon shares have risen approximately 5%. Cover image | OpenAI and İsmail Enes Ayhan In Xataka | OpenAI has turned ChatGPT into mainstream AI. In the business world the game is being won by its great rival

171 million euros later, Metro de Madrid wants to reopen line 7B. The big question is whether the tenth time will be the charm.

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Line 7B of the Madrid Metro will fully reopen this same month of November after more than three years closed. It is the tenth attempt to normalize a service that was inaugurated in 2007 and that has accumulated more than 800 days without functioning since then. The total cost of repairs reaches 171 million eurosnot counting compensation to neighbors, which already exceeds 23 million and continues to increase. A disaster that began in 2007. When Esperanza Aguirre promoted this expansion to have it ready before the regional elections of 2007, no one could imagine the consequences. The construction of the tunnel seriously altered the subsoil by bringing salt and water into contact, which caused the progressive dissolution of the soil. The result: collapse of the tunnels, massive water leaks and structural damage to hundreds of homes in San Fernando de Henares and Coslada. According to internal documents obtained by El Paísalready in 2008 the technicians warned of the “risk of collapses in the metro tunnel and the surrounding buildings”, and in 2009 they warned that action was “extremely urgent.” The figures of the disaster. The repair bill includes 117 million invested by the Ministry of Transport in works and compensation, 49.7 million from the Canal de Isabel II in hydraulic infrastructure, 2.4 million from the Metro itself and 1.7 million from the Ministry of Education to demolish the El Pilar educational complex. In total, more than 171 million euros. But the number will continue to grow: Property compensation, which in 2022 was estimated at 12 million, has already reached 23.3 million and there are nearly 300 open files. Additionally, 73 homes had to be completely demolished, leaving families paying mortgages on homes that no longer existed. The technical solution. To stabilize the ground, the Community has injected more than 11,000 tons of mortar of concrete in the subsoil through 26,000 drillings that reach up to 45 meters deep. It has also deployed 179 mini topographic prisms inside the metro and laser sensors that send daily data on ground movements. The Polytechnic University of Madrid analyzes also satellite images to detect any anomaly. According to the Minister of Housing, Transport and Infrastructure, Jorge Rodrigo, 511 surveillance elements and five robotic stations have been installed that will constantly monitor the road, the land and nearby buildings. The neighbors don’t forget. Although the Community assures that the infrastructure now presents “stability” and meets “the necessary security conditions”, those affected they maintain their mobilizations and demand greater compensation in court. Furthermore, a study by the Polytechnic University detected “considerable movements” in distant areas “without stabilizing”, although without specifying more details. For the 120,000 inhabitants of San Fernando de Henares and Coslada, the November reopening is just the first step to move forward in almost two decades of nightmare. And now what. The Community will allocate an additional 8.2 million to surveillance and maintenance contracts to act immediately in the event of any incident without the need for emergency contracts. Line 7B will be the most monitored infrastructure of the Madrid Metro, precisely because it is the one that has caused the most problems. It remains to be seen if this time the line is truly stable or if it will close again, as has happened on nine previous occasions. Cover image | Zarateman (Wikipedia) In Xataka | Madrid and Lisbon will be linked by the AVE. It will only arrive (if it arrives) 24 years late

The Constitutional Court has frozen 6,700 million of the Wealth Tax. Millionaires will have to wait until 2026

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The Constitutional Court has delayed until 2026 its decision on the legality of the current Wealth Tax, a tax that affects some 200,000 taxpayers in Spain and that in recent years has collected more than 6.7 billion euros, according to advanced The Economist. This delay creates a lot of uncertainty about whether the wealthiest taxpayers They may or may not recover the amounts they have been paying since 2021, when the tax went from temporary to permanent and its maximum rate was raised to 3.5%. History of a controversial tax. He Wealth Tax was created in 1977 and was renovated in 1991 to redefine your goals. During the first government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, its tax was annulled, although the figure of the tax as such was not eliminated, and in 2011 it was temporarily reinstated due to collection needs. Since that date it has been extended annually under the label of “temporary” until in 2021 it became permanent and the maximum rate was raised from 2.5% to 3.5%. As and how he collected Five Days In 2021, this change was questioned by the Popular parliamentary group, which filed an appeal before the Constitutional Court arguing that such structural modifications – in short, a new tax was being firmly created – could not be made through a budget law, according to the article 134.7 of the Constitution. If it is found to be unconstitutional, the Treasury should return everything collected from this tax from 2021 with interest to its taxpayers, a payment that part of an estimate of 6,700 billion euros. The impact on taxpayers. Based on jurisprudence, if the Court declares the tax unconstitutional in its current form, only those taxpayers who have previously requested a rectification of their declarations or initiated a refund procedure will be able to recover payments. The rest would not have the right to recover what was paid because, generally, the sentences do not have retroactive effect, as already happened when the Supreme Court declared the capital gain null and void municipal and the payments had to be returned. Ángel Sánchez, partner of the Golden Partners firm, specialized in real estate taxation assured to The Independent who “The lack of certainty about whether the tax is constitutional or not has a direct impact on the economic decisions of taxpayers. Nobody knows if in a year what is paid today will be able to be claimed.” Given this uncertainty, the expert warns that “only taxpayers who have submitted a rectification request or, where applicable, an administrative claim will be able to recover what they paid. Anyone who has not acted preventively will lose that right.” It’s up in the air, but it’s still valid. Something that is tax experts warning is that, although the Wealth Tax is in question, until justice orders actions, they remain in force. That means that if taxpayers don’t pay While the tax remains in force, they could receive sanctions, surcharges and interest for non-compliance, regardless of what the Constitutional Court rules. Sánchez clarifies that “not declaring constitutes a tax violation. The appropriate strategy is to comply with the obligation and, in parallel, present the claim or rectification to keep alive the right to refund”, in this way, the amounts could be claimed if the Constitutional Court orders its repeal. The claim period covers tax years from 2021 to 2024. The future consequences. If the Constitutional Court endorses the constitutionality of the tax, it will remain in force and consolidated as a permanent tax. On the other hand, if it declares it unconstitutional, the Government could approve a new law that respects the appropriate legal procedures to maintain it. A debate could also begin about replacing it with another more uniform tax figure or one linked to the Solidarity Tax of large fortunes, which has had such good results. There could even be a partial declaration of unconstitutionality, reestablishing the previous maximum rate of 2.5% or returning the tax to the temporary nature it had since 2021, which would imply that the Government would have to extend it each year. In any case, the delay in the Constitutional decision keeps thousands of taxpayers waiting for a ruling that will define the immediate future of the tax and the possibility of recovering millions of euros that have been collected in recent years. In Xataka | Spain has increased its census of millionaires: only 27.6% are paying the Wealth Tax Image | Wikimedia Commons (K3T0), Unsplah (omid armin)

AI has been great for Satya Nadella. His salary this year exceeds 96.5 million dollars

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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s salary has reached a new record in 2025: $96.5 million. According to collected Bloombergthe Microsoft executive received a 22% salary increase compared to 2024 that reflects the skyrocketing stocks from the $4 trillion tech giant. Underlying this salary increase lies a debate that has been on the table for some time: the accelerated increase in the wage gap among senior managers of a company and its employees. Work well done pays off. The last fiscal year has been historic for Microsoft and its CEO, Satya Nadella, who will receive the largest salary package since he took office in 2014. According to what Microsoft made public in a document filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the total compensation awarded to Nadella amounts to $96.5 million. This remuneration represents an increase of 22% compared to the previous year, in which a salary of $79.1 million for the CEO. If Microsoft does well, so does its CEO. As stood out Fortunethis salary increase goes hand in hand with the good stock market performance that Microsoft has had in recent months, and the prominence of artificial intelligence in its products and services The company’s board of directors indicates that more than 95% of Nadella’s compensation is linked to the performance of his shares, highlighting financial results, the creation of value for shareholders and leadership in AI as key elements to grant that salary increase to the executive. It’s salary, but not everything is cash. The majority of the compensation Nadella will receive comes from stock awards worth more than $84 million. The bonus that the CEO will receive in cash for different incentives will amount to 9.5 million dollars. For his part, the manager’s base salary It remains at 2.5 million and will obtain $196,000 in other benefits, such as per diems or private jet services. This implies that about 90% of their remuneration is variable and dependent on stock market performance, which means that it is only a valuation that is made at the time it is assigned, but it is an asset that can increase or lose part of its value. depending on your management. This remuneration strategy linked to shares represents an important incentive for the CEO to continue meeting objectives. Salary escalation. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, his salary has continued to increase at the same rate as the company’s stock price. According to the published data by Business Insiderin 2015 Nadella’s total salary was $18 million. By 2022, his compensation had multiplied to $55 million, and increased by 63% in 2024 to $79.1 million. With the 96.5 million, the Steve Ballmer’s successor At the head of Microsoft he has broken his own record. Salary gap and layoffs. This year of prosperity for the CEO of Microsoft occurs in a context of complex internal adjustments in the company he leads, which has announced layoffs that will affect up to 15,000 employees. The difference between Nadella’s salary and that of an average Microsoft employee is significant: the CEO earns 480 times more than the average annual salary of his employees, which is around $200,972. This gap between managers and employees does not only occur at Microsoft, but is another example of an upward trend in large technology companies. According to a study that has analyzed the main companies of the S&P 500, in the last five years the salary of managers has been increased by 35%. A much higher percentage than the salary of its employees has increased. In Xataka | The highest paid Spanish manager in the world does not work in a large technology company: he sells “sugar water” Image | Microsoft

Mercadona’s ready-meal supplier is investing 150 million more because we have given ourselves

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Familia Martínez, the group that manufactures packaged lasagnas, gratins and roasts for Mercadona, has announced aAn investment of 150 million euros in two new facilitiesboth in areas affected by DANA 2024: A 20,000 square meter plant in Buñol dedicated exclusively to roasted products. And a rapid distribution center of 3,500 square meters in Torrent with capacity for 1,000 pallets. Both will be operational between 2025 and 2026. In one of the openings there is a nod to the founding of the company: it started in the 70s with a butcher shop in Torrent. Qor what is important. This expansion responds to the explosive growth of fifth-range prepared dishes in Spanish supermarkets. We are not talking about food from the counter that is sold hot (the ‘Ready to Eat’ section), but about refrigerated packaged products that the consumer heats at home: cannelloni, lasagna, roast ribs… A few months ago The Spanish have consumed 17 kilos per person of prepared dishes in 20246.6% more than the previous year, and Mercadona has bet heavily on this category: Juan Roig said a few months ago that “in the middle of the 21st century there will be no kitchens” and is transforming the chain accordingly. The figures. Familia Martínez closed 2024 with a turnover of 480 million euros (8% more) and a net profit of 31 million (15% more). Production exceeded 92 million kilos, with a growth of 6.2%. The group directly employs more than 1,900 workers in Valencia and Madrid. More than 600,000 gratin dishes and 200,000 roasts leave the Buñol plant every week. In total, it has invested 320 million euros in the last seven years. The context. The Martínez Family integrates four companies: Martínez sausages (minced meat and sausages). Traditional dishes (gratins, lasagna and fifth-range roasts). Five Forks (traditional roasts). La Pila Food (semi-finished products for industry). Mercadona represents 85% of its business. Last year, the group paid 68 million euros to the French group Fleury Michon to keep 100% Traditional Dishes, the jewel in the crown. The money trail. The investment in the new Buñol roasting plant is the most ambitious in the history of Familia Martínez. The center has been designed under criteria of energy efficiency and sustainability, with special attention to water savings. According to the CEO, Raúl Martínthe group is “in a moment of important growth, in line with the good progress of our main client”, in direct reference to Mercadona, which represents close to 80% of its business. The disappearance of kitchens that Roig predicts not only translates into more prepared dishes, but also a radical simplification of fresh products. During 2024, Mercadona has expanded its “reengineering” of the fishmonger’s section to offer products that do not require the intervention of a fishmonger in the store. Salmon nuggets, gluten-free hake sticks or clean sole are examples of this strategy. The rapid distribution center in Torrent will include semi-automatic shelving and two refrigerated warehouses with automatic management and robotization systems. This will shorten delivery times and improve the operational efficiency of the current Embutidos Martínez plants in Cheste and Torrent. In Xataka | The boom in prepared food in supermarkets has a blind spot: nutrition. Are we putting the foxes to guard the henhouse? Featured image | Martínez Family, Mercadona

one has a turnover of 250 million and the other is going into bankruptcy

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Mr. Wonderful appealed to the Supreme Court against Ale-hop in January. nine months later is about to enter bankruptcy. The chronology reveals that the court battle was never about intellectual property: it was the last attempt to externalize one’s own failure. Why is it important. Two companies that sell “cuquis” products with positive messages have had opposite trajectories. One has been litigating while sinking. The other has been growing without going into debt. The facts. Mr. Wonderful sued Ale-hop in 2021 for unfair competition, alleging that he copied his style of animated objects, motivational phrases and pastel tones. In 2022, the Commercial Court No. 5 of Valencia rejected the claim. In 2023, The Provincial Court ratified the ruling. And in January 2025 sent an appeal to the Supreme Court as the last bullet. In October 2025 it is about to enter bankruptcy. The argument. The courts have been clear: the kawaii style (objects with eyes and expressiveness) has been in the public domain since the sixties. “Styles are not the object of a monopoly,” the Court ruled. That Mr. Wonderful applied it with initial success (his first years were of meteoric growth) did not give him a monopoly over it. In addition, Ale-hop had products of this style in its catalog in 2010, a year before Mr. Wonderful was established as a company. The figures. While they litigated, they achieved very different financial results. Figures for the year 2023 (last year with figures for both presented): Billing: Ale-hop, 224 million euros (there are already 254). Mr. Wonderful, 26 million. Number of stores: more than 300 in five countries for Ale-hop. Mr. Wonderful he was 50 and now he has 10 left. Margin: 20% profitability on income for Ale-hop, 7 million euros of losses for Mr. Wonderful. It is a difference in model, not scale. They are two opposite philosophies. Ale-hop has a rotating catalog of 6,000 references that is constantly renewed. It “forces” the customer to return frequently. It buys directly from factories in large volumes (the key behind its high margins despite low prices) and has a strict anti-debt philosophy. Mr. Wonderful was born in 2011 as a design studio specialized in personalized wedding invitations. Its cheerful tone and colorful aesthetic connected with its clientele, and within a few years it became a phenomenon. In 2016 it reached 30 million in turnover. It was present in El Corte Inglés, in Fnac, in stationery stores throughout Spain. Then he decided to make the leap to his own stores, but the pandemic arrived right after and completely hit a business model that depended on physical traffic. Sales fell and losses began. The sentence. In October 2024, A Barcelona judge approved a restructuring plan for Mr. Wonderful. CaixaBank, its main financial creditor with 6.8 million debt (45.47% of liabilities), he challenged it and now justice has ruled him right. The sentence, collected by Five Daysis devastating: He questions whether the sales forecasts – an increase of 10 million between 2024 and 2028 – are “reasonable” or based on “a historical reality.” He considers it “surprising” that the company did not have audited accounts or updated sales data during the judicial process. And he concludes that the projections “cannot be objectively justified.” It’s the same kind of argument the courts used against Mr. Wonderful in the Ale-hop case: your numbers don’t hold up in reality. Only this time they weren’t talking about whether they had the right to claim a style, but rather whether the company was viable. The Court adds something else: given that Mr. Wonderful has closed physical stores and its main channel is now online, the logical thing would have been to make estimates close to the results of the years prior to the pandemic, when that was its model. Instead, it presented projections that the court considers hardly credible and based on provisional, unaudited data. He timing. Nine months have passed since the appeal to the Supreme Court until the bankruptcy proceedings. Nine months between pointing out a competitor and admitting the internal problem. It is common in companies in crisis: to outsource, to look for blame outside (unfair competition, plagiarism) when the problem comes from within (strategy, adaptation, business model). Mr. Wonderful has come this far by a deadly trident: bet on him retail physical just before the pandemic, opening more than 50 stores that coincided with COVID, in addition to investing too much in premium areas that would not give the expected return. Going into debt without sustainable competitive advantages. Operate in a market where you never had moat. Mr. Wonderful tried to build his moat about an aesthetic style that he could not legally possess exclusively. Business Insider public a report in November 2023 in which he provided other keys to this fall, alluding to internal sources: Exhaustion of your core business: The product was copied by other companies and buyers were no longer willing to pay extra for the brand. The online channel was adulterated with too many discounts and offers that generated conflicts with the rest of the sales channels. It went from being the jewel in the crown to being outsourced. Business model with high structural risk: almost half of the income came from school agendas, return rates ranged between 30% and 50%, and there was dependence on the price set by Amazon’s algorithms, which again… represented a multichannel conflict. The logistics crisis of September 2022. It caused serious delays at a critical time for sales (back to school) and eroded the trust of some customers. They also pointed to a drain on managers motivated by strong discrepancies with the leadership style. The contrast. Ale-hop has not shown signs of fearing his competition because he knew that they did not compete in the same thing. Grimalt, its founder, saw a simple opportunity: cheerful and cheap products, for impulse purchase, in tourist areas. It didn’t take revolutionary genius, but rather consistent execution over time. Mr. Wonderful did have a great connection with his … Read more

almost a million employees for a colossal project

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BYD surpassed 968,900 employees by the end of 2024, more than Tesla, Toyota, Ford, BMW and Renault combined. It is a figure that would be absurd for any traditional automaker, but it has a simple explanation: BYD is not just an automaker. Methodological note: This figure includes the entire BYD Group, not just BYD Auto. Unlike manufacturers that clearly separate their divisions, BYD operates as an integrated ecosystem where the majority of employees are directly or indirectly linked to the automotive business. The company does not publish a breakdown by division. Why is it important. The Chinese company has built the largest vertical integration ecosystem in the automotive industry worldwide. Tesla, for example, buys batteries from Panasonic and chips from third parties, but BYD manufactures absolutely everything in-house. Its business model covers four complete industrial sectors: The automobile division is only the most visible, but also manufactures electronics for Apple. And it produces batteries as the second largest manufacturer in the world. It also develops components from semiconductors to heat pumps. More than 110,000 of its employees work exclusively for Apple’s supply chain, assembling 30% of its iPhones and iPads. The BYD figure, as we said at the beginning, is for the entire BYD group, not just BYD Auto. Other manufacturers have their own nuances: Volkswagen’s 656,134 employees only include the automotive group (Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, Skoda, etc.), and not large divisions such as finance. However, it does include small divisions of components, such as engines or transmissions. The 389,144 employees of Toyota are only from Toyota Motor Corporation, it does not include Industries (components, textiles, forklifts, etc.), Aisin (transmissions, brakes), Denso (electronic components) or Boshoku (interiors). The complete Toyota ecosystem would be about 800,000 employees. The context. BYD applies a long vertical integration: They internally produce batteries, semiconductors, software, heat pumps, electric motors, control systems, fast charging and structural elements. This strategy allows them total quality control, cost reduction and speed of innovation superior to rivals that depend on external suppliers. Its eight factories in China have tens of thousands of workers. Each one. The Zhengzhou plant has 60,000 employees and plans to hire 20,000 more. Furthermore, they have created authentic “industrial cities“with housing, services, commercial establishments and sports facilities for workers. In figures. The numbers justify the strategy: Employee growth: 37.73% in 2024 (265,400 new workers). R&D personnel: 110,000 engineers, the largest in the automotive world. Cars sold: 4.27 million units in 2024. Go deeper. The contrast with its competitors is striking: Tesla laid off 15,000 employees in 2024. Ford plans to eliminate 4,000 jobs in Europe. Renault is considering laying off 3,000. BYD continues to increase its workforce. However, direct comparisons are complex due to the different business structures mentioned above. They have hired almost 50,000 recent college graduates in two years in China. In the rest of the world they are also advancing: they are building factories in Hungary (2,000 jobs), Mexico (10,000 planned jobs), Brazil, Thailand and Indonesia. Its expansion model, as we have already seen in Spaingoes through the total localization of the production chain. The question is whether this model is sustainable in the face of increasing automation. In fact, Tesla has clearly shown its approach to robotization, but BYD seems to prioritize the human factor for the moment. At least for its model of total control of the productive ecosystem. Featured image | Tiago Ferreira In Xataka | If the question is “would I pay 100,000 euros for a BYD” the answer is “recharges in five minutes.” And we will see them next year

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