About twenty businessmen and businesswomen have participated in a meeting in Olot to share projects and future challenges. The entrepreneurs have put on the table issues such as the professionalization of the teams, the generational change within the family business and the increase in the cost of energy.
ICF held a working session today in Olot with about twenty businessmen and businesswomen, both from the city and from nearby towns, with the aim of listening to the projects of companies, the future challenges of the area's economic fabric and the financing needs of companies.
During the meeting, it was announced that the ICF has financed, during the last three years, 224 companies and entities in the regions of Girona for a total amount of 174 million euros.
The meeting began with the opening speech of Lluís Bruguera, the new ICF Delegate at the Girona town hall, who focused on the ICF's willingness to listen first-hand to the businessmen and women who they play a key role in the dynamism of the Catalan economy in this territory and in the fact that the ICF is a useful and agile instrument for the financing of companies in La Garrotxa. Bruguera also shared the different solutions that the ICF makes available to companies to promote growth, innovation and sustainability in the business fabric.
In this way, Bruguera has explained three products in detail:
- ICF Eurocrèdit, loans for small and medium-sized companies that want to finance investments or working capital needs to grow, open new markets, make new developments or strengthen the company's activities;
- Avalis Creixement, loan guaranteed by Avalis de Catalunya for growing Catalan SMEs that make investments and/or for working capital needs;
- ICF Tourism, loans for the improvement and modernization of hotel establishments (hotels, hostels or pensions), tourist apartments, campsites and rural tourism establishments with operational headquarters in Catalonia, which have been in operation for a minimum of two years and with a bonus of the financial cost (of 2% of the interest rate) by the General Directorate of Tourism of the Department of Business and Work.
Afterwards, Francesc Roche, commercial representative of financing in the area, moderated a round table with Joan Boix, general manager of Noel Alimentària and Francesc Pagès, of Pagès Valentí.
During the debate, topics such as the relief within the family business and the business commitment to professionalization were discussed, as well as the impact of legislative changes in the field of textiles, energy costs and specialization in the textile industrial waste recycling as a new line of business.