There are addictions that are difficult to get rid of, also in the business world. The Spanish logistics and distribution giant Logista, created decades ago around the tobacco business, is striving to reduce its dependence on this product through a therapy consisting of company acquisitions and a commitment to new businesses. Advances are already being made in activities such as parcel delivery, convenience products, pharmaceutical distribution or heavy transportation.
The company comes from the former Tabacalera, renamed Altadis and privatized in 1998. In 2008, the British tobacco giant Imperial Brands launched a takeover bid to buy 100% of Altadis and, incidentally, Logista itself, whose activities were closed. all disconnected from the old matrix. Imperial took Logista public in 2004 and has been selling shares until it maintains 50% today.
Logista is now a listed company valued at more than 3.3 billion euros, a volume that allows it to appear among the 35 largest on the Ibex since the end of last year. It is not one of the best-known large corporations in Spain, but it has a very select and influential board of directors, with figures such as Gregorio Marañón and Bertrán de Lis in the non-executive presidency or former minister Cristina Garmendia among the members. Its CEO is Íñigo Meirás, former CEO of Ferrovial.
Regulatory changes, the decrease in the volume of tobacco sold and the interest in exploring new opportunities explain Logista’s strategy. “Although we do not plan to abandon the tobacco business, our main focus is to diversify our activities and gradually reduce dependence,” the company indicates.
Of the 2,112 million euros that the group entered into Spain in the last fiscal semester (from October 2022 to May 2023), 1,669 million correspond to tobacco. The weight of this activity is even greater because until now all the turnover from France and Italy depended on this business. However, Logista boasts that there is a lot of life beyond cigarettes: it is capable of reaching 200,000 retail stores thanks to its enormous capillarity. This position has allowed it to consider a plan for strong growth in the transportation of pharmaceutical products, convenience products and books.
This slogan is the main one of your strategic plan. The “essential focus is to provide additional growth and diversification to the current business base” and with this objective “the group continues to seek opportunities to acquire complementary and synergistic companies,” the company states.
The latest acquisition was formalized in July and allowed it to acquire the Italian company Gramma Farmaceutici, dedicated to distributing pharmaceutical products. At the end of last year he bought the Catalan company Carbó Collbatallé, founded in Barcelona in 1976 and dedicated to a very specific activity: cold transport, that is, at temperatures between -4 and -18 degrees Celsius.
However, the true declaration of intentions was the operation that last year allowed it to take over 60% of a Murcian heavy transport empire born from below: Transportes El Mosca. It took 60% for 106 million euros, with a commitment to acquire the other 40% in the coming years. 100% of the company was valued at more than 175 million.
“We continue to look for small and medium-sized opportunities to grow the company,” was the message from Logista directors in a recent presentation to investors. While taking out the checkbook, the group is busy integrating the newly acquired companies, with which it aspires to obtain synergies.
The company has also targeted the parcel business in its diversification efforts. It has bought the Nacex group and, in the second quarter of last year, it took over 70% of Speedlink Worldwide Express, a Dutch company specialized in express deliveries, which offer the greatest added value.
It has also entered the maritime transport of refrigerated containers to the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, and in businesses linked to the fruit and vegetable sector. Through Carbó Collbatallé, it wants to integrate several long-distance routes for the transport of frozen products.
The latest purchases are boosting some of its business divisions. Transportation services are now increasing their income at a rate of almost 90%, while temperature-controlled products are doubling their income. It has an agreement with RBA to distribute its editorial fund, that is, non-periodical publications, starting in the fourth quarter of this year.
On the other hand, the company has a judicial front open regarding the 20 million fine imposed by the CNMC for exchanging information with companies in the sector about the sale of cigarettes in Spain. The fine, from 2019, is being appealed before the National Court. The file also affects tobacco producers such as Altadis, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco. The Supreme Court annulled the inspections carried out by the CNMC on Altadis as part of this file.
It is the current market capitalization of the company, measured in millions of euros. Up 4% since January
