On Ramón i Cajal street in Barcelona, right by Joanic square, Vell Món is an authentic temple of antique furniture. Siblings José María and Cristina Ruiz run a furniture restoration and sales business where you can either bring in worm-eaten or unglued furniture to be repaired, restore a table with great sentimental value, or buy a beautiful piece of furniture that has decades (or centuries) of history impregnated in its wood. It is addictive and fascinating to hear a lifelong artisanal trade spoken about by an artisan who knows it, because the craft is their life.

Pimec has brought its request for a state law that "rewards business growth instead of penalizing it" to Madrid this Wednesday. The president of Pimec, Antoni Cañete, assured during an event in the state capital that there are entrepreneurs who want to gain scale and who "find themselves with a new obligation, a new administrative burden, or a higher cost precisely when they make the leap." He also warned that "small business size hinders competitiveness in Spain." At the same time, a Pimec report—which includes 348 interviewed companies—shows that 45.3% of companies have not received any aid in the last five years to favor their growth.

An eraser, a ruler, a pair of pens. Also two highlighters, a pencil sharpener and, of course, a few pencils. This week, with the return to classrooms, pencil cases have been filled again with school supplies. And on the back of many pencils –especially those that students will use for the most artistic subjects– there will be stamped the same name: Faber-Castell. They are the two surnames of a German dynasty that has been manufacturing them for more than 260 years.

On June 6, 1981, a voracious fire engulfed a historic building in the city of Barcelona, which was located at the confluence of Pelai Street and Ronda Universitat. It was not just another building, because years earlier it had been the headquarters of the El Águila department stores, one of the most important in the Catalan capital for decades. The emblematic image that the press reflected the next day was that of the figure of the eagle that presided over the building completely surrounded by smoke. It fell a few minutes later and put an end to a long history.

Cirsa, a Catalan company in the gaming sector, announced this Wednesday its merger with the Italian group Lottomatica. According to the agreement, communicated to the National Securities Market Commission, the Catalan firm, of which Blackstone is the main shareholder, will be absorbed by its Italian counterpart, in a cross-border operation that will create one of the leading global companies in the gaming and sports betting sector. The resulting company sums a combined accessible market of 34 billion euros and an adjusted gross operating result of 2 billion euros. With these figures, the merged group will become the second largest listed gaming operator in the world.

The agro-food cooperative Cotecnica has taken a new step in its international expansion strategy with the acquisition of Life Pet Care, an Italian company specializing in pet food and linked to the Life Natural brand. The operation allows the Bellpuig-based company to strengthen its presence in one of the sector's main European markets and expand its growth possibilities through an already consolidated commercial structure.

Despite being a tourist powerhouse, Catalonia has never been home to many of the sector's major groups, although there are exceptions. With a proportion of 12% of all wealth generated in the country in a year, reflected in the gross domestic product (GDP), tourism is one of the essential sectors for the Catalan economy. Recently subjected to debates about its contribution to productivity and protests due to the rise of businesses such as tourist apartments and for overcrowding and gentrification, it has been, in any case, a dynamic activity, especially in recent years, as shown by data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat). And it is highly focused, on the one hand, on the rental of flats and apartments and, on the other hand, on services for companies in the sector.

Tourism contributes nearly 12% to Catalonia's GDP, the indicator used worldwide to measure an economy's size and growth. However, who generates this wealth? The sector is made up of 133,752 companies and employs 451,990 people, according to the latest data from the Institute of Statistics of Catalonia (Idescat), corresponding to the end of 2023.

Catalonia closed the month of June with 2,142 new companies. According to the provisional data on the formation of commercial companies from the National Institute of Statistics, the Principality increased new business activity by 9.8% year-on-year, after a June 2025 that already approached historical records. In fact, according to INE records, it is the best June in terms of the inauguration of new companies in the historical series, with data available since 2008.

On Monday, July 20, the creation of the Catalan Centre for Business and Human Rights (CCDH) was made official, a demand from Catalan civil society that, after many negotiations with different governments and failed attempts, has finally seen the light. At a time when the West seems to question the rules of global governance (supposedly) inspired by its values and driven by its supremacy, the emergence of such an institution in Catalonia is no small matter.Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the small artifact that can be given to a small country, recalling the song. Its value lies, once again, in proposing an anti-cyclical image, totally opposed to the spirit of times when the jurists of the International Criminal Court receive sanctions from the world's leading power for trying to make international law something more than a vademecum of forgotten laws. If Josep Pla were alive, it would be a truly typical local absurdity, effectively characteristic of the Gallic village into which we are turning, at a state and European level, in recent times, regarding (very) minimally coherent foreign policy.

Let's think about what is needed for an economy to produce goods and services. At the center are the people who work, individually or organized in large or small companies. We all use tools, machinery, and infrastructure. We depend heavily on others, our suppliers: we are not Robinson Crusoe doing everything alone. Finally, there are the different levels of government, which set the rules of the game, enforce them, and directly manage a significant part of the economy's resources (almost half of what we produce).

The co-founder and executive president of Holaluz, Carlota Pi, receives ARA a few hours after the company has presented the allegations against the file from the Ministry of Ecological Transition that opens the door to the disqualification of the company as a marketer. First thing the next day, at the company's offices, Pi defends that Holaluz's business model is "one hundred percent viable" and that, what it needs, is "scale". She cannot confirm or deny that an alleged non-payment to large electricity companies is the reason for the possible disqualification. She defends, however, that the company's debt "is not excessive, not by a long shot".

Renewable energy companies, research centers, and professionals are sounding an alarm: "It has been a very, very, very bad year," assured Víctor Cusí, one of the spokespeople for the Observatory of Renewable Energies of Catalonia (OBERCat), during the presentation of the annual report.

The Catalan energy company Holaluz has gone from being considered a success story to being one step away from losing its operating license. Last week, the Spanish government began the procedures to withdraw its consideration as an electricity marketer and a procedure to transfer their clients to other reference companies. However, what has happened since the applause in entrepreneurship forums and the headlines for Holaluz to have reached this point?

News at various levels in the Catalan wine sector. Just weeks after the renewal of the presidency of the Regulatory Council of Cava, which placed Marta Vidal at the head of the designation of origin (DO) of Spanish sparkling wines, the employers' association of producers will have to change its president. The direction of Barcelona Wine Week, the main wine event in the country's capital, is also being reshaped. Outside the vineyard, PepsiCo is undertaking an appointment in its human resources department, and Ikea in Spain seeks to build "an increasingly relevant, close, and accessible brand".

A bag of salad, some cookies, cat food, or the plastic label from a water bottle. It's hard to find a supermarket without some kind of flexible packaging. They are present, on average, in half of the products, even up to 80%. But behind these wrappers lies an industry practically invisible to the consumer, yet essential for products to be promoted on shelves. From Riudellots de la Selva, in the urban area of Girona, Comexi has been developing the technology for over seventy years that allows for the printing and transformation of this type of packaging, a global market where it competes with some of the world's leading manufacturers.

Can you imagine if the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, or the French president, Emmanuel Macron, quadrupled or quintupled their wealth during their term in office? Many of the corruption cases we are experiencing in this country, despite being extraordinarily serious, might seem like amateur games compared to Donald Trump's practices since he arrived at the White House. This first year in office, he has continued doing business (he and his family, directly or indirectly), despite being president and applying a very mercantile diplomacy and international policy as well.

Chef Gessamí Caramés (l’Ametlla de Mar, 1992) finished her degree in audiovisual communication and realized it wasn't her path. She saw her classmates dedicated with a passion she didn't share. Without realizing it, cooking was becoming the center of her life. She dedicated her free time to cooking, watching gastronomic programs and recipe books, and investing her savings in kitchenware.

The housing crisis is also a drag on business growth. This is according to a report prepared by the SME Observatory of the Catalan employers' association of small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, which indicates that one out of every two businesses in the country has renounced applying growth measures – from expanding staff to opening new production centers – due to the residential pressure suffered by both the company and the workers.

Until the forties, the Hungarian football league had been a matter of three: the vast majority of titles had been shared between Ferencváros, MTK, and Újpest Dózsa, the three great clubs of Budapest. But coinciding with the Second World War, a modest team from Csepel Island emerged, which was precisely called Csepel SC. It broke the prevailing hegemony thanks to its victories in 1942, 1943, and 1948. By the way, four years after the last title, during the 1951/52 season, Csepel SC had a young forward in its ranks destined to make history: his name was Zoltán Czibor, and some time later he would tread the Camp Nou to triumph dressed in blaugrana.