Enrique Tomás: "I will live well until 100 years, it is a personal decision"

Enrique Tomás Ruiz (Badalona, 1966) has the gift of gab of the neighborhood shopkeeper and the discourse of the successful entrepreneur accustomed to giving lectures to explain his business model and life philosophy. Four figures to understand the phenomenon: he sells 3,000 hams every day and has 179 points of sale in 11 different countries. In his company, which last year invoiced over 300 million euros, 1,700 people work. He has just separated from his wife, bought a second private jet, and is preparing a big party for his 60th birthday. Oh, and he warns that he is determined to live to 100.Do you like the ham king label?

— I like the one about the ham emperor more. In El Periódico they've caricatured me twice: the first one was the king of ham and the second, the emperor. Jokes aside, I hope that one day I'll be remembered as a person who helped put ham in its place. It's not there yet and I've been pedaling for 48 years. Ham is the best food product in the world. It's the only thing you can eat at any time, it's healthy, and we should put it on the world podium, if you like, with truffles and caviar, but it has to be there.

Do the turnover and employee figures in your company fill you with pride or concern?

— Responsibility, absolute responsibility. Money doesn't bring happiness, but the lack of money prevents you from being happy.

Aren't you twice as happy now that you bill 300 million as you were when you billed 150 million?

— No way!

How many siblings are you?

— Eleven siblings and I am the youngest. Plus the grandmother and parents, we were 14 people living in a 55-square-meter apartment in the La Salut neighborhood of Badalona. The six girls and the grandmother, in one room; the boys, in another, and my parents, who were selfish, took the largest room. They came from Orihuela, in Alicante, and all eleven children were born here.

You have lived both sides of life: that of a humble family and now, do you perhaps have a private jet?

— Yes, two private jets, I have. I just bought a super cool one.

You've had a Porsche, a Ferrari...

— Yes, Ferrari, Porsche, now I have bought a Maybach, which is like an airplane that goes down the street.

I find it hard to understand these inequalities, that there can be no limit.

— Jim Carrey says he wishes everyone were rich and famous so they could realize that being rich and famous doesn't make you happy. Most people don't have a good relationship with money.

It will drive you crazy, I guess.

— If you are not prepared and it comes to you suddenly, you will normally overdo it. We already see it with Lamine's case. Can anyone put themselves in his shoes? To go from a neighborhood where they tell you "Moor, you don't get in" to having the world at your feet... My case has nothing to do with it. At 8 years old I was already working helping at home, at 12 I finished EGB, being the only one in the family to complete it, and to work from Monday to Saturday.

Did your parents have shops?

— My parents had children so they wouldn't have dependents. The father worked in a textile factory and, when the third child arrived, they opened a dairy, a grocery store of the time. I understand life as working, working, and working. When it has cost you so much to earn money, I guarantee you won't throw it away. I'm buying a plane because I'll get something out of it. I don't make a trip that doesn't make sense. My plane is to go to Salamanca, which is eight hours there and eight hours back. Try going to Vitoria, try going to Cordoba...

We don't have to go that far: try taking Rodalies.

— I use Rodalies a lot. From Badalona to Sants I am there in 23 minutes.

Are you telling me you have two private jets and you're taking the commuter train?

— Of course! And I'm going to Madrid by AVE. Why did I buy such a big car now? Because in the next two years, no one will have guarantees that they will arrive in Madrid on time.

The other day I was watching a documentary series about Jeffrey Epstein and, in the background, there's also money, power.

— I do not agree. What exists is a disease, they are sexual predators.

But it is not an isolated case. It is a network of powerful and wealthy people from all over the world who believe they are immune.

— We have experienced this in the lower classes as well. There are people who are born bad. If you have more power, you have more opportunities to harm. But if you become a priest, you will have access to helpless people, too. At the Maristas in Badalona, we have experienced a tremendous case, and I do believe in God. I am especially sensitive to this issue. I have had two wives, I have a daughter, and I have no doubt that they have been harassed on more than one occasion. Do not relate it to money. It is absolutely in all layers.

You say that you "have had" two women, in the past.

— Yes, yes. This is the first time I'm telling this and I'm saying it today because we talked about it with my son ten days ago. I just separated after twelve years of relationship. A wonderful woman, a fantastic son, and we'll make a great team. Nowadays, the difficult thing is to last a long time, because there are so many inputs, so many possibilities...

You have two older children with your first wife, and a third child, 10 years old, with your second wife. Were you a more absent father with the first two?

— If you ask my second wife, she'll tell you I've also been an absent father. I believe dad is dad and mom is mom. The father should complement the mother. I remember my father a lot, but every day I live with my mother by my side, and she died in 2019. Mom is mom.

A thorny issue, Enrique. I don't know if I'm understanding you...

— And I don't know if I've explained myself. But I'm not here to say the politically correct thing.

Are you not politically correct?

— Look, today the minister Ordeig called me to thank me for having made statements saying that it was the first time that a swine fever outbreak had been well managed. Why? Because he is a socialist? Because everyone assumes I have to be from the PP?

What do you mean, people think you're from the PP because you have two private jets?

— People assume that if you have a private plane, you logically have to be right-wing. Cause and effect.

And you are not?

— No way. But I'm not left-wing either.

Oh, darn.

— I believe in management policy.

How do you define yourself politically?

— Whenever I can do something for someone, I do it. Sister Lucía Caram gives 100 ham sandwiches every day at the Santa Clara convent in Manresa, and Father Ángel gives another 100 at the San Antón church in Madrid. Is this being on the left or on the right?

It is being supportive.

— Not even that. It's the most normal thing in the world.

It's what I was telling you before: what's strange is that we've normalized the inequalities that exist in the world. How can it be that 100 people have the same amount of money as half of the world's population?

— First, this is very bad. And then: let's visualize the richest man in the world. Does anyone believe Elon Musk is happy? Does anyone envy him?

What is your concern today?

— That when someone buys one of our sandwiches they don't get what they're supposed to get. A sandwich is a transmission of love. There must be love in whatever is inside, and there must be love. I am very worried that the 1,400 people who make sandwiches, which was surely not their dream, will put love into it.

Do you think you pay your workers well?

— In 2022 I made a decision and shared it at a meeting of entrepreneurs. Can we say that with less than 1,500 net euros people are poor? If you live as a couple, 3,000 between you, 1,000 for rent and you survive on 2,000. There's no staff, they complained. But how do you expect there to be staff? Let's be sensible, let's pay what's necessary.

Is there no one in your company who earns less than 1,500 euros net?

— Nobody. And we are not an NGO: if someone doesn't deserve it, we will have to fire them so another can come in. It's a decision I made after COVID, when we started to breathe.

This 2026 we will turn 60 years old, you on September 28th and me on October 5th. For you is it just a number or is it impactful?

— I think it's a turning point. They say it goes in seven-year cycles. From 49 to 56 is when a person is most efficient in their life, because you're still young and wise at the same time. When you reach 56, you become aware that life is finite. Your idols die, Cruyff, Brigitte Bardot, Robert Redford, your friends also die. You can take it badly and start getting surgery and getting botox and botox and botox, or you get rid of all the baggage you've accumulated. Now I'm deleting contacts from my phone: I had 5,000 and now I only have 590 left. Do it, it will give you pleasure.

I have 1,600 contacts.

— So you are a very measured guy.

If everything goes as it should, we are lucky with our health, and we meet life expectancy, we would be missing a third of our lives.

— I don't know about you, but I'll live well until I'm 100. Well, I mean to the fullest. It's a personal decision. I'm serious. You've left health to chance and I don't agree with that.

How many cases do we know of people who have led an impeccable life and have left us at 30, 40, or 50 years old!

— You don't sow and let's see how many times you'll reap. If you sow, a downpour might fall and ruin your harvest, but we must be sensible. Let's take care of ourselves! At 80 or 90 years old, I imagine myself practically the same as now. The best of life is now. Among other things, why else, what? I wouldn't go back to 30 years old even if I were crazy. I've stopped drinking alcohol, I try to have only one digestion a day. Alcohol is not good.

But life is a bit more cheerful, isn't it?

— I'll buy that from you. If you're capable of having a drink now and then, I'll buy that from you. But I don't.

For you are not a man of moderation, like me.

— I am an excessive person, that's why I had to quit smoking. I either drink or I don't drink. I've never had problems with alcohol. But I have a lot of social life and when I realize it, I've already had six drinks.

What is Badalona for you?

— It is the origin. I love Badalona, it is very beautiful. Serrat did not dedicate the song to it by chance. Of course it has its problems, but it seems that only the bad is talked about.

What is Catalonia to you?

— What would I tell you... it's my country, without going into stories. At the hardest moment of the Procés, they interviewed me on RAC1 and I said: "I don't want independence, but if we become independent, I'm staying in this country." I wouldn't leave Catalunya for anything in the world. It's the land that welcomed my parents.

Why don't you speak Catalan?

— Yes, I do. But I think in Spanish and have to translate it. My mind goes very fast and it's incredibly difficult for me.

Does this mean that in 60 years you haven't needed Catalan in Catalonia?

— Of course, I haven't had any problems. When they introduce me as "a good Catalan", I reply: "And you a foolish Andalusian". Or a Manchego or whatever. We are a wonderful society and we have a privileged land.

What is Spain to you?

— It's the big house where, as already happened in my house, sometimes the dishes are not distributed well. There was a time in my life when I wanted to be a deputy and almost all the parties proposed it to me. I had achieved my material dreams very quickly and I wanted to see if something could be done from politics. I had planned it for when I was 47, but a girlfriend I wasn't expecting came along, and a son who wasn't either. Now I have totally discarded politics. I can do more things from the outside than from the inside.