Xavier Berneda: "In the world of fashion, there are operators who work in a format between legal and illegal"

Xavier Berneda, executive director and co-owner of the Catalan sneaker manufacturer Munich, receives the ARA shortly before giving a talk at a meeting of the Catalan Fashion Cluster (Modacc) at Món Sant Benet, in Bages. As expected, he wears the X symbol on his feet and jacket, which is also sported by many of the collaborators who greet him.

Munich has more than four hundred employees and about sixty stores – practically all of them its own – and makes more than a third of its sales abroad. Without mincing words, Berneda analyzes the company's and the sector's progress in a context where global trade is marked by uncertainty and the emergence of new formats, while, at home, housing conditions the day-to-day.

What remains of the textile tradition and the fashion industry in Catalonia in 2026?

— The fashion sector is affected because consumer habits have changed. There are operators working in a format between illegal and legal, who are capable of bringing in products at prices below industrial cost to capture consumer data: they want the child's information to sell them a car or an internet line tomorrow.

Is Shein a competitor of yours?

— If they sell shoes, yes. There is a lot of competition. Shein has opened a marketplace [an electronic commerce platform that brings together sellers and buyers in a single space] and surely we will participate. But the rules of the game must be the same for everyone, packages cannot enter without paying VAT and tariffs. Here it has been allowed for these gentlemen to do what they want, out of fear of the Chinese government, I suppose.

Can you withstand the impact of cheap competition?

— We must differentiate ourselves with a much higher quality product, branding and brand, and try to make consumers feel part of a collective. There are many legs to sell more: the brand, delivery, price, sustainability...

On March 31 you closed the 2025 financial year. How has the international landscape affected you?

— We are still in accounting adjustments. We have not invoiced the same as last year, we have invoiced a little less. We have to be much more profitable, difficult years are coming, consumption habits are changing.

How can you improve profitability?

— What has had the most impact on the 2025 results?

What has had the most impact on the 2025 results?

— Global instability, undoubtedly, more than Donald Trump's tariff war. It makes people not want to consume. It also affects global distributors, who are afraid. There are countries that have told me they were cutting orders in half because they don't have an army, Costa Rica, for example. What does that have to do with it? In principle, Trump will not go to Costa Rica, but they don't know if they will receive American tourists, they say.

Business owners want stability.

— Yes. We also don't want peaks, many of us suffered after covid, because it was a boom. We overestimated ourselves, we were going by fits and starts. What companies need is a very sustained rise, not to go from 0 to 200 and fall back again.

And in the logistic field?

— Ships are going around the world. Think that we are placing orders that arrive in six months, and this is impossible. Furthermore, shipping companies charge whatever they want. However, I always underline the same thing to the staff: reality is the same for everyone, we all have the same problems.

How is your business abroad?

— We do more than a third of sales abroad. Many times they buy directly from the factories without going through here: we produce in Vietnam, China, Indonesia, Romania, Portugal, Tunisia. We have a plant in Capellades and another in Alicante, but we cannot stop producing abroad, either. Precisely because of logistics, absenteeism... the footwear cluster is in China, where practically 50% of the world's suppliers are.

Is the production you have in Spain minimal?

— Home, they are 180,000 pairs out of a production of two million. I will not dismiss anyone that my grandfather hired, and today people from many different countries also work there. It also brings us speed and proximity.

Before I was talking about absenteeism. Unions dispute that absenteeism at work is as high as employers claim.

— Take the Social Security data and make the outline. We have a rate of absences that I've never seen before. I'm not saying we don't have sick workers, I don't know, maybe it's that we have new illnesses that we didn't count on before, but we have a very high rate and a very high staff turnover. We don't know how to retain talent, and surely afterwards we hire another one that is worse and more expensive.

Is it hard to find talent?

— It depends on talent, but yes, of course it's difficult. New generations value their time much more, perhaps it's because they want to live better than their parents, and they will surely be worse off.

Does AI compete with humans?

— If you ask the AI to apply the color combination, it does it better than anyone, but the key is in the model it has to work on, in what format it has to apply it, and in how it has to combine elements, for example. The talent lies in the question you can ask the AI, not in the answer.

How do you plan your investment in AI?

— We invest in what offers data protection and return on investment. Before, buying a calculator was very expensive, and shortly after they would give it to you with cookies. Therefore, we have to see where the business is. Now, I also tell you that we have to detect the new footwear trends ourselves, AI does not predict the future, it talks about what has already happened.

How do you value the change in governance model, with the entry of a general manager [Didier Grupposo] external to the family?

— I am very happy. It is not a change of dynamics, but of roles. He does a much more quantitative part of the work, and has a different vision because he has been in many companies. Every time a new person has joined any department, we have improved a lot. It was difficult for me to decide who to put because there were several candidates that I liked a lot.

You are negotiating the restructuring of a debt of 200 million euros. How are the talks going?

— We only have short-term debt and we are negotiating to pass part of it to long-term. It looks good. We have the ships paid for, assets, and the balance sheet is good. We will have to make efforts of many kinds, some personal, but we will make them. It is not too complex. I have to tell you that I went there thinking it would be the last monkey and I found many friends there, what happens is that in our case someone filtered it.

Only fringes are missing?

— It's half done, there are two little things left. They are not fringe benefits. I attach great importance to it, but they don't. Our debt ratio is much lower than our turnover.

Is there a possibility of an investor coming in or a capital increase?

— Now, not a single one.

What are your forecasts for this 2026?

— Billing will surely be better than last year, although I don't think we'll reach the 80 million from 2023. Italy is doing very well this year, and we have invested a lot in Brazil, for example. We've already gotten used to the war... Perhaps it's like my Argentine friends, who have gotten used to living in an economic depression. People can't stop buying and selling.

To what extent should the quality of life and the housing problem concern employers?

— Very much so. We can't live in Barcelona, nor in L'Hospitalet, nor in my town. They have thrown us out. People have had to go live far away and we have the public transport that we have. Let them free up more land in places where the infrastructure is not collapsed, let them impose a cap per square meter... politicians are for that, it's not my job. If people can't live with dignity, they won't consume.