The electrical industrialist who planted the seed of Siemens and Philips in Catalonia

At the beginning of June 2022, we dedicated an installment of this series to talking about Werner von Siemens, a German entrepreneur who set up a small telegraph line construction business and who, over the decades, would become the multinational Siemens we all remember. But in that text, we didn't start by talking about him, but rather about the person who was key to Siemens establishing itself in Catalonia in 1910. This man was Lluís Muntadas Rovira, from the family that owned La España Industrial, but who—as we said at the time—had his own plans.

The textile company La España Industrial was one of the largest companies in the history of Catalonia and today has left its mark on the city of Barcelona through a park next to Sants station. Muntadas was probably able to work comfortably in the family business, but after studying engineering—first in Barcelona and later in Switzerland—and working at the Compagnie del Indústria Éléctrique in Geneva, upon returning to Barcelona (1890), he set up a small electrical equipment business thanks to his patents. That embryo evolved into a larger company called La Industria Eléctrica, founded in 1897. There, he manufactured electric motors and installed electrical systems. The factory was located in the Eixample district, but in 1908, he opened new premises in Cornellà de Llobregat.

That same year, he made a foray into the world of lighting, creating the Lámparas Z light bulb company, which remained an iconic brand for a long time. This business was set up in collaboration with Roger Clinchant de Milly, a French businessman. The factory was on Gran Via, very close to the Las Arenas bullring. At the same time, he founded the Compañía de Cables Eléctricos (Electric Cable Company), which was acquired by Pirelli in 1913 after briefly passing through French hands.

Before all this, in 1901, he was decisively involved in the construction of the Tibidabo funicular, whose development company had been formed by Dr. Salvador Andreu Grau and Romano Macaya Gibert, two of the most prominent patricians of the time. Incidentally, the multinational Siemens, which we mentioned at the beginning and will discuss later, also took part in this project.

In 1910, major changes came about when La Industria Eléctrica was taken over by Siemens, which at that time was run by the founder's eldest son, Arnold von Siemens. A few years later there were already more than six hundred workers, and after the Second World War this number doubled. By the 1970s, the factory had become one of Siemens' main production plants outside of Germany.

But the integration of the local company founded by Muntadas into a large multinational was not a unique case, because the other business he had created, Z Lamps, became part of Philips in 1920. Shortly after Muntadas' death, his son-in-law, who had inherited the company, transferred that collaboration to a shareholding that led to full ownership by Philips.

Just as he was transferring ownership of La Industria Eléctrica to the Germans, he received an offer from Frederick Stark Pearson himself to be the number two in the company that was about to be born, Barcelona Traction (better known as La Canadiense), a company we have talked about on numerous occasions.

Muntadas's entrepreneurial spirit was also channeled through the Foment del Treball employers' association, of which he served as president from 1907 to 1911, just months before his death. His successor in office was Lluís Sedó Guixart, whom we discussed in this series at the end of February 2022. During his term in office, he had to live with Barcelona's Tragic Week (1909), which completely disrupted life in the Catalan capital. During this period, he also supported the creation of the Cotton Weavers' Mutual Protection Society, a lobby that sought to provide cover for businesspeople in the sector and which, at Muntadas's initiative, undertook commercial expeditions to North Africa.

When he died, aged just forty-six, obituaries highlighted his enormous work in building good relations with the various Spanish governments, as well as his regionalist ideology.