Dear Sir,
A mention was made recently of how Richard Branson was messed around when he tried to invest in a local property.
The property he wanted to buy was on protected land, his plans weren’t accepted by the townhall because he wanted to construct 5 luxury villas on the land.
His promise of employing local people to work the land sounded good but the locals were working the land anyway. Its now included in the UNESCO world heritage.
A company owned by Mr Branson also owned a house in Lluc Alcari which had been built illegally.
Those houses have since been pulled down. The Residencia Hotel was also owned by Mr Branson was in negotiations for 2 years before it was sold. In that time the hotel had started to reduce its fleet of chauffeur driven cars, which were used by guests.
They also reduced staff. What does that tell you?
Entrepreneurs. There are quite few Spanish self made business people. Amancio Ortega (Inditex) and Juan Roig (Mercadona), Mr Barroso (Don Algodon), Custo Barcelona (Fashion designer).
Locally we have Aprop supermarkets, franchises using fresh local produce, owned by the Eroski group.
IB3 on Saturdays and Sundays have a section of the local news dedicated to local people setting up new businesses. People are trying, though it is not easy with all the paperwork involved.
Banks are starting to give loans, there have also been noises made about loans of 3000€ low interest.
The Bulletin could do some interviews about new businesses. Give them a plug instead of painting the picture so black.
Lisa Simpson