Essence: opening restaurants in the event of a tsunami
"We will suffer losses this year and perhaps next year too, but we must see this as an investment," says Xavier Mitats ( Barcelona, 1958), founding partner of the Essence 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 create a restaurant group based on Restaurant Agua, which did not participate in the Miura deal.
Mitats created Grupo Esencia and entrusted its management to his third son, Guillem. In November, they opened Tierra at the Ninot market in Barcelona, and they were preparing to open their third restaurant, Brisa, at the Palau de Mar... COVID-19 was like a tidal wave that destroyed all their plans. "We closed Tierra during lockdown and, as it is in the market, we have not been able to reopen it. We opened Brisa a few days ago... but at half capacity. Turnover is only 25% of our forecasts. Or compared to last year's turnover, 'in the Water'.
The group invested €4.5 million in opening Tierra y Brisa and expected to earn €12 million this year with its three stores.
Mitats had already experienced a tsunami during the previous crisis: in 2006, he signed with Astroc, Enrique Bañuelos' real estate company, to lead its expansion in Brazil. "No one could have imagined that an event like the collapse of Lehman Brothers would have such devastating repercussions on global finance. " Today, he points out, governments are significantly improving the situation, "with ERTE and ICO loans to finance losses." As a result, Esencia, which should have around 120 employees, now has only 45 active workers, with many others working under ERTE and others who have never been hired. "We businesspeople must make an effort to open up the city and keep it alive. There are entire areas that, if they deteriorate, will never be destroyed."
Mitats began his professional career as an economist and auditor. After Arthur Andersen ("the best school in 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, together 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, she began working in the leisure and restaurant sector. "Rosa Esteva and Tomás Tarruella, the founders of El Tragaluz, were Arnaut's clients, and they offered me the opportunity to join them at Agua , Agua she 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, providing partners to open restaurants such as Negro and Bestial. Still in Brazil, while he was running the Quabit subsidiary, he opened a restaurant in Fortaleza, which he still manages today.
"It runs in my family," he admits: his father started Virmit, a company selling and exporting textile machinery, which was later run by his brother.
"The restaurant business is very rewarding. People have fun, they laugh... And in the 1990s, I also had a lot of leeway, more advantages than glamour." Today, the situation is more difficult for the sector: rents, wages, and raw materials are rising, but this is not being reflected in prices. "People want to dine for 30 or 40 euros... just like twenty years ago." That's why she recognizes that it's a support group: it creates administrative synergies with suppliers and salespeople, thanks to the trust that the brand inspires. Esencia is expected to achieve a turnover of €12 million in 2021 and continue to add local sales, although some steps will be delayed. "Our priority is to consolidate the two new restaurants," in which the company has invested €4.5 million.
Esencia also participates in the Barcelona Tennis Club restaurant, managed by Gonzalo Ros and Carles Vera. "I come from the Llafranc tennis club. I love tennis. And in a country that has Nadal, it's impossible for there to be people who don't like it."
Learn more about: Tierra Brava Restaurant
Learn more about: Brisa Restaurant