From having a van in a fleet of 1,500 buses: who drives Monbus?

If you travel around the Barcelona metropolitan area often, you've probably ridden on one of its buses. Monbus is the company that operates services such as Aerobús, which connects Barcelona with El Prat airport; lines that connect the Catalan capital with Vilafranca, Manresa, Igualada, Valls or Reus; and urban buses in smaller municipalities, such as Esparreguera and Abrera, in Baix Llobregat Nord.

Twenty years ago, it was difficult to see its corporate yellow, white and blue colours circulating in the streets of Catalonia, but that has changed today. Today, the company is a true giant: it travels 105 million kilometres a year, connects more than 1,900 destinations, has 2,800 employees and in 2023 it had a turnover of almost 246 million euros.

The figures are the result of a business policy based on the purchase of smaller companies in the sector that have a long tradition in the region. In Catalonia, the company stepped on the gas in 2008, when it bought the historic Hispano Igualadina for 61 million euros. This move, the largest ever made by the company, earned it a stripe: Monbus became the first private passenger transport group in Spain.

However, the company is not all roses and roses. The company has a disastrous history of complaints and problems that, in some cases, have resulted in significant financial penalties, such as the fine of 280,000 euros that the Valencian government imposed on a consortium led by Monbus for leaving 1,300 students without school transport for eleven school days. They also have an open investigation by the Galician Competition Commission, together with Alsa, to see if they shared the market for the concessions granted to them by the Xunta de Galicia to operate regular passenger transport lines. But, in addition, who is behind the company?

The seed: a single van

The origin of Monbus began almost a hundred years ago in Sarria, a town in Lugo. There, Raúl López Loureio was revving the engine of his van, valued at 500 pesetas. He spent the day taking people up and down. Just after the Civil War he invested in a small fleet of buses and began touring the municipalities of the province. Things went well for him: In 1960 the company already had five coaches and incorporated the firstautopullmans, a type of luxury coach intended for tourism.

Ten years later, the company expanded its fleet to fifteen vehicles and began offering school transport. It was then that the company passed into the hands of the founder's son, Raúl López López, who still runs the business. It was a breath of fresh air. Its drive resulted in significant growth: in 1980, it had a fleet of forty vehicles, one hundred employees and operated outside Galicia, with a line that linked Lugo with Barcelona. It also bought a couple of smaller companies and was awarded the transport service for the city of Lugo.

"Monbus has extensive knowledge of the market, a key aspect for success in a sector such as passenger transport," analyses Josep Maria Espinet, professor of marketing at the University of Girona. "The accumulated experience has been very useful when it comes to winning public bids," recalls the expert. In 1990 Monbus incorporated lines to the Basque Country and at the turn of the millennium it had 135 coaches. In 2002 the company bought Castromil, an emblematic transport company in Santiago de Compostela, La Unión and a string of other more modest initiatives. In 2004 it began to expand beyond Spain's borders, with lines to destinations in 800 cities in 34 countries.

In 2012, the group already had sixty companies with different shareholders: independent companies, but which added synergies under the Monbus brand. In 2021, Monbus gained momentum again in Catalonia with the concession of the Aerobús, urban transport between Horta and Gràcia and several intercity lines in the metropolitan area. In recent years, it has also gained weight in Valencia, Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha and Portugal, where it already operates in the metropolitan area of Porto.