"No one understands what he is because he doesn't seem to be it". This is how an economist friend defines Juan Roid, owner of Mercadona, President of the largest business empire of commercial distribution in Spain with more than 70,000 employees and an annual turnover exceeding the 19 billion Euro. "Only in an envious country like Spain can barricades from which to criticise this entrepreneur’s unusual and bold adventures be lifted", argues journalist and writer from Alicante Manuel Mira, author of the book 'Juan Roig, the Visionary Entrepreneur'.
The latest published biography of the President of Mercadona shows the opinions of hundreds of people that have had dealings with the designer of the "culture of effort", a human resources strategy that brought upon a shy student of the Faculty of Economics of the University of Valencia in the early seventies many successes.
The author of 'Juan Roig, the Visionary Entrepreneur’ narrates the well-known businessman's childhood in the farmhouse of Poble Nou, where he loaded and hauled sandbags with his brothers Paco and Fernando to clean Paco el Porquer's, as people knew the Roig's father, pig pens business.
Juan studied at the San Jose de Valencia school (Jesuits), where they predicted his future would be dark: "this guy will be nothing in life". After being at this educational centre he moved into exile to a Franciscan school, where Juan Roig became aware that he had to strive to reach what he aspired to. He decided to study economics, instead of agronomy, as his father wanted.
In that faculty he met Hortensia Herrero, whom he married, and with whom he now has four daughters.
In the author of the unauthorized biography's opinion the owner of Mercadona, Juan Roig preferred his mother, Trinidad Alfonso, as opposed to the older siblings who leaned towards their father. Some highlights of the origin of the family saga are the business purchases, from their great grandparents (Vicente Roig and Desamparados Guillén) sales of grain and livestock, his grandfather's, Francisco Roig Guillén, specialization in livestock, a job that his son, Francisco Roig Bataller, continued to do. The latter, initially accompanied by a cousin and his brother-in-law, although later on by himself, launched Carnicas Roig.
The slaughterhouse, located in Pobla de Farnals and that covered the entire production process, began to crumble in the early eighties; Paco Roig's actions couldn't save the family business. His trips and businesses in Guinea failed to revive Cárnicas Roig, which resulted in suspension of payments and subsequently, in liquidation.
The Coup
Roig's father established Mercadona in 1977 and Juan, after a coup de family, became the director in 1981. A decade later, after the initial phase of expansion of the supermarket chain out of Valencia, promised to pay his brothers and sister-in-law Marilyn, Paco Roig's ex-wife, 3,900 million pesetas (23.4 million Euro) for their actions. After this transaction he took control of the company maintaining a good relationship with his brother Fernando (who is a director of Mercadona) but not in the best terms with Paco.
Since then, Mercadona has experienced an exponential growth that contributes 3.570 million Euro to the national GDP and generates 400,000 direct and indirect jobs. They will soon be abroad, although they prefer to wait so as to be able to help Spain out of economic crisis.
According to writer Manuel Mira, Juan Roig isn't an ambitious entrepreneur. His most defining trait, almost to a sickening point, is that of independence. Only by remaining independent could he make Mercadona the company he had dreamed of even before graduating. Only by being alone could he lead. A voracious reader, he gave some students the book 'Never Give Up Your Dreams', a scholarly study of Jesus Christ's intelligence.
Source: Levante-emv.com
