Miguel A. Torres focuses on globalisation and forecasts 5% growth this year

"The future belongs to companies with distribution channels", declared Miguel A. Torres, president of Bodegas Torres during the latest Matins ESADE session sponsored by Ernst & Young in conjunction with La Vanguardia.

His company’s turnover was €230m in 2013 and it anticipates growth of 5% in 2014. It is currently expanding in countries including Brazil, Belgium and Sweden and remains committed to globalisation. As a result, China, India and Mexico are now strategic markets where the company already has a foothold despite the losses incurred in some of them. "The ability to make good wine, speak English and travel by air are the keys to success for any company", said Torres.

The CEO outlined the smooth transition of the fifth generation into the key positions in this family business. In 2012, his son Miguel Torres became the general manager of Miguel Torres,  whilst his daughter Mireia Torres is the general manager of the companies Torres Priorat and Jean Leon and is also working on a new Cava production project. Other members of the fifth generation are Arnau Torres Rosselló and Cristina Torres, whilst the fourth generation consists of the company president, Miguel A. Torres, and the vice-presidents, Juan M. Torres and Marimar Torres. The president’s wife, Waultraud Maczassek, is the chairwoman of the Miguel Torres Foundation involved in a variety of social cooperation projects.

Torres is to be found in several appellations and has wine cellars in the Spanish regions of Penedès, Priorat, Ribera del Duero and La Rioja. The president also mentioned that they are thinking of buying facilities in Rueda, Spain’s Castilla y León region.

China, an up-and-coming market

The upsurge in the middle class in China, its good infrastructures, more developed capitalism and lower taxes are some of the positive factors that have helped Torres be successful in China, where the company has its own distribution company selling not only their own wines. Torres has also opened a chain of stores, Everwines, in China and a wine bar too, and "on-line sales are increasingly important", emphasised the president.

India, despite current losses, is viewed as a "market with a future" partly, went on Miguel A. Torres, because "it’s a democracy unlikely to experience any radical changes, unlike China." The lack of success is partly because of "too much red tape and lobbies". "It’s very much a protectionist market with lots of trade barriers", he continued. The same applies to Brazil which, despite losses of more than a million euros, is a market where Torres must have a foothold.

Concern about climate change

Climate change and global warning are two of the wine industry’s main concerns due to the direct impact of temperatures on wine production. As a result, Torres has begun to buy land that is cooler than usual, at higher altitudes, for their vineyards. One such area is the town of Tremp, in the Pyrenean foothills of Lleida, where the company has already planted vineyards.

Other measures being taken consist of adapting vineyards and changing the stock (they have found an old Catalan stock that is highly drought resistant), replanting, using renewable energies and hybrid cars to reduce CO2 emissions and, in the case of Torres, using biomass, i.e. burning pruned wood and other materials, resulting in 10% savings in electricity and 95% in the gas needed to produce cold and hot water. Torres also has a 12,000 sqm solar farm in Pacs del Penedès which provides 10% of the company’s electricity.

The importance of R&D and the company’s DNA

The Torres president explained that the company invests €2m a year in R&D devoted mainly to different varieties, natural yeasts, experimental projects such as carbon fixation using beds of algae, and obtaining vegetable carbon from old stock. Torres is also an active member of FIVIN, the wine research foundation, whose studies have determined that the "moderate consumption of wine is good for health."

Torres emphasised how important it is to motivate people and for them to be ecology minded, with a view to reduce the company’s carbon footprint by 30% per bottle in 2020, and also its fair trade venture. Finally, he added that "the group pays its taxes in Spain".