Juan Roig Mercadona

Juan Roig

Juan Roig, chairman of Spain’s Mercadona supermarket chain, has been ranked the boss with the best corporate reputation in Spain, in a recent study.

The 15th edition of the Corporate Reputation Business Monitor (MERCO), listed Roig’s key attributes as his strategic and commercial vision, ability to bring teams together, innovative character and approach to ethical and CSR issues.

MERCO ranks company bosses taking into account the views of their customers and employees, analysts, directors, unions, charity representatives, trade journalists and other experts. Among the factors considered are the company’s economic and financial results, the quality of their products and services and the perceived leadership strength of the individual.

Roig is followed by Europe’s richest man and founder of the Inditex clothing empire, Amancio Ortega, with the latter’s current chairman Pablo Isla third.

Valencia-based Mercadona is Spain’s biggest supermarket, with a network of 1,536 stores employing 74,000 people and annual sales of €20bn. It has expanded aggressively in the past five years and built on a successful own-brand strategy.

Other company bosses in the top 10 are Telefónica chair César Alierta, Banco Santander boss Ana Botín, CEO of Caixabank Isidro Fainé, chairman of the BBVA bank Francisco González, REPSOL fuel giant’s leader Antonio Brufau, head of Iberdrola Ignacio Sánchez Galán, and ACS director Florentino Pérez, in that order.

The same criteria is applied in the MERCO company ranking, and Inditex topped the list as being the most reputable in Spain, followed by Mercadona – which has won the most points for retail distribution for five years running – and then Banco Santander, REPSOL, Telefónica, BBVA, Iberdrola, Caixabank, MAPFRE insurance, and Google.