Emilio Pérez Nieto: “We have decided to grow in 2022 in Asturias and Castilla y León”

The latest KPMG Perspectives Spain: Automotive report indicates that 57% of sector executives believe that precovid billing will not recover until after 2022, do you also think so?

Yes. I think like most. We recovered the precovid 2019 billing and we have even increased due to two factors. On the one hand, we have invested in more companies in 2020, reaching 8 market points in automobiles and, on the other, we have doubled our volume in industrial vehicles.

What are the numbers?

We closed 2019 with 435 million in turnover and in 2021 we have exceeded 400, having fallen in 2020 to 375. We are recovering our pulse, although we have found ourselves with a lack of supplies and a lack of stock to sell both cars and vehicles industrial. And we are giving delivery times that exceed what is reasonable. I started in the automotive industry giving delivery times, when the Seat 600 began to be sold, very long. A sign was collected from the customer and said: “Come here in a year and I’ll tell you.” These deadlines are now unacceptable due to the dynamics and demands of the current market.

Does investment continue to decline?

We continue to invest and grow. This year we will invest similar figures to the prepandemic years. We are working on expanding our marketing network outside of Galicia. We are thinking of other territories.

What territories?

Until now we were limited to Galicia and we have decided to grow this year 2022 through Asturias and Castilla y León. The decision is part of our strategic plan. We want to grow outside the territory of Galicia and we have started with industrial vehicles in these two communities.

Registrations do not finish flying …

Aside from the problem of supplies, customers are puzzled, they don’t know what to do. Between all of us we have puzzled them. They do not know if they have to buy a car, if they want to buy a gasoline, diesel, hybrid or electric car. And when they are half convinced of one of these solutions, someone tells them about hydrogen. And they start over because, when it comes to an alternative powertrain, the problem is where it is supplied.

How can the sector be helped at this juncture?

First, information work is needed. Few people know that in Spain we have one of the oldest fleets of passenger cars in Europe. In Galicia, Asturias and other areas of Spain, the pre-crisis car fleet had already an average age of 13 years. The first thing to understand is that a car that is 13 years old or older is a car that pollutes much more. All vehicles older than 13 years should have been scrapped by giving tax incentives and making allowances for buying modern vehicles.

A new PIVE Plan?

I am in favor of an incentive plan for the buyer who changes his old car for a new one. If we seek sustainability, let us prevent those cars that pollute the most from circulating on the roads.

Spain is the second largest car manufacturer in Europe and the eighth in the world. Do we take sufficient care of the automotive industry?

It is not cared for. I am very resounding. First, there should be a discussion with producers and users to analyze sustainability measures. Listening does not hurt and, as far as I know, that dialogue at least publicly has not taken place. Second, measures have been taken, they have been rectified, they have been taken again, but a strategic plan has not been made for the vehicle manufacturing industry in Spain.

Diesel continues to be demonized …

Gasoline technology is very well controlled by the Americans. The hybrid is dominated by Japan and other countries. Electric technology is controlled by China because they are the world’s leading producers of batteries. Europe has made a tremendous effort to have a diesel powered vehicle with a virtually zero pollution industry. The demonization that has been made of diesel is not understood. It seems to me, although this is a very personal opinion, that Europe has shot itself in the foot.

Besides passenger cars, you sell commercial vehicles, how is this market doing?

In industrial vehicles, we speak of absolutely sky-high expectations. The industry is not able to meet the demand that has been generated. There is an increasing number of tons of merchandise to transport and demand has skyrocketed.

Pérez Rumbao is also a bus manufacturer … what is your presence in this segment today?

We are manufacturers of a 12-13 meter vehicle for collective tourist transport. It is a vehicle that we have very experienced because we have already sold many units in France, England, Holland, Norway, etc. With this crisis, the tour operators closed down, the sector was severely affected and it is now when it seems that it is recovering.

And then you have to adapt to the digital revolution …

Communication with our main asset, which is the customer, and with our workers has to be digital. Before, when the client came, we bored him with papers. Today the entire process has been digitized. People see everything digitally and when customers arrive at our exhibitions they already know what model, what color, what accessories and what equipment they want.

And another revolution will be that of mobility …

It is a very important transformation. We are sellers of traditional cars, but very soon we will also be sellers of mobility. It is a complete revolution. In ten years the client will want to be moved, to be given a service. Until now, for the customer, the vehicle was the most important thing after the floor. People go into debt for five years to buy a car, but it seems that the new generations want mobility services. They want a shared car, a personal use, but they don’t need it to be theirs, they need the service.

And is Pérez Rumbao ready to adapt to this new trend?

We are in it. To see how we provide mobility services. We will have to serve our customers differently. The traditional customer buys a car and takes it to repair the workshop; And, at the same time, the new client is the one who makes a contract with me and I sell him services through other platforms, but I am the intermediary. And we can do it with vehicles that I own or that of a logistics operator that I contract based on demand.

A whole change of mentality just when Pérez Rumbao celebrates his centenary … what is the secret to surviving with such success?

Perseverance and the ability to adapt. Those two are the keys. Family businesses are masters in managing internal and external crises, and our history is crisis management. I would like this centenary to be a tribute to my father, to my brother José Ramón, who passed away in 2020 and without him it would have been impossible to get here, and also to all the generations of employees who have made Pérez Rumbao possible.

In personal key

In the private sphere, Emilio Pérez Nieto, a lover of his family, is also a good friend of his friends. “I have so many friends and I have such a life of friends that I don’t have time to get bored,” he confesses smiling.

Another of his passions are books. He is a lover of reading: “I read a lot more than I assimilate, but I consider myself a great curious about what I read.” He reads a lot about the history of Spain and America, and is also interested in the social and philosophical essay. “I really like to think and ponder, and I have concerns in the ethical, moral and principled order,” he assures.

And in the creative order, he is passionate about photography, which, in his opinion, is the artistic manifestation of any human being. «There are others who paint, some write. I like photographs, take them and see them ». He has all of them digitized and there was a time when he had many on paper.

He also admits that he likes to “pry” with technology: “gutting a photo machine is a magnificent game of invention.”