TWO Spanish companies have made it into the top 100 Best Global Brands list, beating giants such as Panasonic, Dior, Heineken, Ferrari and Huawei.
Few corporations on earth stood much of a chance against the top 10 – Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Samsung, Coca-Cola, Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, McDonald's and Disney, respectively – but one of Spain's two has beaten Tesla, Nescafé, Netflix, L'Oréal, Ford and even Visa.
The names of the two are fairly predictable and most people who opted to hazard a guess at which they were would probably get it right – Zara, the 'star' label by fashion giant Inditex, enters at number 35, and Banco Santander hits the standings at number 74.
Although it would seem a major achievement by the latter to rank higher than 26 other firms of huge global renown, Santander has actually dropped seven places in the last year, and Zara has fallen six.
But both these factors show just how much strength the brands have had in the recent past, and how much they could have in the future.
Santander is present in many other countries and at least one other continent – it has branches across Latin America and, in 2004, bought out the UK's Abbey National bank – and, perhaps, from a tourism point of view, one of the benefits it has given Spain is that of putting the region of Cantabria on the map.
This northern territory, on the coast but off the typical northern European holidaymaker's beach trail, was popular with the English aristocracy in the 19th century as a winter retreat and its capital city of Santander features Victorian mansions along its seafront designed specially for its blue-chip visitors.
The bank is also often upheld as an example of 'breaking the glass ceiling', since it is one of a growing number of multi-national corporations whose CEO is a woman.
Ana Botín's company is reported on Best Global Brands (BGB) as being worth US$7,474,000 (€6,362,340) – compared with Cartier (number 73) at US$7,494,000 and FedEx (number 75) at US$7,367,000.
Its growth is said by BGB to have reduced by 12% in the past year – and Zara's by 13% - but this is largely to be expected in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and in fact, 52 of the 100 have experienced a reduction in growth in that time, several are new in this year, a few have remained unchanged, and only 38 out of the 100 have seen an increase in annual growth, often for obvious reasons: Johnson & Johnson, which is one of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine producers, and various technology companies whose use rises during national or local lockdowns.
Zara, probably one of the planet's best-known Spanish fashion labels – along with Mango – is reported to be worth US$14,862,000 (€12,652,580), compared with disposable nappy brand Pampers (number 34) at US$15,073,000 and motor make Hyundai (number 36) at US$14,295,000.
Brands Zara has beaten – numbers 37 to 72 inclusive – are H&M, Nescafé, Allianz, Tesla, Netflix, Ford, L'Oréal, Audi, Visa, eBay, Volkswagen, AXA, Goldman Sachs, Adidas, Sony, CitiBank, Philips, Gillette, Porsche, Starbucks', Mastercard, Salesforce, Nissan, PayPal, Siemens, Danone, Nestlé, HSBC, HP, Kellogg's, 3M, Colgate, Morgan Stanley, Spotify, Canon, and Lego.
Santander comes ahead of, from numbers 76 to 100 inclusive, Nintendo, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Corona, Ferrari, Huawei, DHL, Jack Daniel's, Dior, Caterpillar, Panasonic, Kia, Johnson & Johnson, Heineken, John Deere, LinkedIn, Hennessy, KFC, Land Rover, Tiffany & Co, Mini, Uber, Burberry, Johnnie Walker, Prada, and Zoom.
TWO of Spain's largest high-street banks are reported to be in merger talks, potentially resulting in the joint entity being the second-biggest in the country in terms of share capital.
THE average Spanish resident will spend between €500 and €1,500 on their holidays this year, with three in 10 set to increase their budget from last year and 16% reducing it.
SPAIN'S State post office has launched a new solution for passing travellers who do not want to lug their suitcases around: Lockers for bags are now provided, with prices depending upon weight.
