Essència: opening of restaurants in a wave of tides
"We are going to have losses this year and possibly next year too, but we have to see it as an investment," says Xavier Mitats ( Barcelona, 1958), founding partner of the Essència restaurant group. Mitats, a former partner at El Tragaluz, sold his stake last summer when the Miura investment fund came on board and began to build a restaurant group based on Restaurant Agua, which was left out of the deal with Miura.
Mitats created Grup Esencia and entrusted its management to his third son, Guillem. In November, they opened Tierra in Barcelona's Ninot market and were about to open their third restaurant, Brisa, in Palau de Mar... Covid-19 has been like a tidal wave that has destroyed all their plans. "We closed Tierra with the lockdown and, as it is in the market, we have not been able to reopen it. We opened Brisa a few days ago... although at half speed. Turnover is only 25% of our forecasts. Or of last year's turnover at Aigua."
The group will invest 4.5 million in opening Tierra y Brisa and planned to make 12 million this year with its three stores.
Mitats already had experience of weathering a tsunami in the previous crisis: he signed with Astroc, Enrique Bañuelos' real estate company, in 2006, to lead its expansion into Brazil. "No one could have imagined that an event like the collapse of Lehman Brothers would come and devastate global finances." Now, he points out, governments are doing much better, "with ERTE and ICO credits to finance losses." Thus, Esencia, which should have about 120 employees, only has 45 working, with many others on ERTE and others who have never been hired. "We entrepreneurs must make an effort to open up, to keep the city alive. There are certain areas that, if they deteriorate, will never recover."
Mitats began his professional career as an economist and auditor. After working at Arthur Andersen ("the best school for the profession"), he co-founded Arraut y Asociados ("Javier is one of the people who has taught me the most in my life") and later, in 1998, he founded, with Carlos Puig de Travy, a consulting and auditing firm that was the embryo of what is now the Spanish subsidiary of Crowe Horwath International.
At the same time, however, he began working in the leisure and restaurant sector. "Rosa Esteva and Tomás Tarruella, the founders of El Tragaluz, were clients of Arnaut's, and they suggested that I join them at Agua, Aguahe explains. In 1998, he promoted a tourism project in Cuba with the French group Macumba and the Giró Group, and during those years he began collaborating with El Tragaluz, bringing in partners to open restaurants such as Negro and Bestial. In Brazil, while managing the Quabit subsidiary, he also opened a restaurant in Fortaleza, which he still runs today.
"It runs in my family," he admits: his father started Virmit, a company that sold and exported textile machinery, which was later run by his brother.
"The restaurant business is very rewarding. People enjoy themselves, they laugh... And in the 1990s, I also had a lot of margin, more profits than glamour." The situation is more difficult for the sector today: increases in rental costs, salaries, and raw materials, which cannot be reflected in the price. "People want to dine for 30 or 40 euros... just like twenty years ago." For this reason, he acknowledges that it is a support group: it creates administrative synergies with suppliers and vendors due to the trust that the brand inspires. Esencia expected to have a turnover of 12 million in 2021 and to continue adding local sales, goals that will be delayed. "Our priority is to consolidate the two new restaurants," in which the company has invested 4.5 million euros.
Esencia also participates in the Club Tennis Barcelona restaurant, managed by Gonzalo Ros and Carles Vera. "I'm a member of the Llafranc Tennis Club. I love tennis. And in a country that has Nadal, it's impossible for anyone not to like it."
Find out more about: Tierra Brava Restaurant
Find out more about: Brisa Restaurant