Onubafruit, Grupo Migasa and Landaluz, winners of the Alas Awards

The awards will be delivered next Monday, September 23, during an event organized by the Ministry of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior at the headquarters of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation in Seville.

The companies Grupo Migasa, Ly Company, Onubafruit, Prodiel, Ortiz & Reed and the Landaluz business association have won the XIV Edition of the Alas Awards for the Internationalization of the Andalusian Company. Some awards organized by the Ministry of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior, through Extenda-Andalusian Agency for Foreign Promotion. These entities were chosen by the main jury of the awards, after a previous selection of finalists made by the respective jurors in each of the Andalusian provinces.

The Alas Awards have been held since 2001 and aim to recognize the merits of Andalusian companies and entities with activity abroad. They serve to enhance the contribution that these entities make to the economy of Andalusia, and so that their example stimulates the whole business community of the community to initiate and persist in the internationalization of their activity.

The awards will be delivered next Monday, September 23, during an event organized by the Ministry of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior at the headquarters of the Three Cultures of the Mediterranean Foundation in Seville. Likewise, the merit of the 21 companies that were chosen as finalists in each of the eight provinces and, in general, to all the exporting companies of the community will be recognized for the contribution they make to the growth and creation of employment in Andalusia.

In this edition, the Alas Awards have five categories: ‘Initiation to Export’, ‘Export Company’, ‘External Implementation’, ‘International Ecommerce’ and ‘International Trajectory’, which is awarded in two modalities, company and entity .

Foreign Sector Contribution

The granting of these awards coincides with a time when the foreign sector is shown as a fundamental pillar of the Andalusian economy. Specifically, Andalusia has reached a trade surplus of 1,874 million euros abroad in the first half of 2019, the second largest since statistical data (1995) is available for a January-June period. The Andalusian coverage rate stands at 112.3%, more than 21 points above that recorded by Spain as a whole, which with 90.9% presents a deficit of its foreign trade balance of 14,712 million.

The Andalusian commercial balance of the first semester almost doubles that registered in the same period of the previous year (999 million), and is only exceeded by that reached in the first half of 2017 (2,252 million).

Between January and June 2019, Andalusian exports reached 17,116 million euros, which strengthens Andalusia as the second in the ranking of the most exporting autonomous communities, with 11.6% of the national total, only behind Catalonia (25.4%) and ahead of the Valencian Community (11%), Community of Madrid (10.4%), Basque Country (8.9%), Galicia (7.1%) and Castilla y León (5% ).

Although the number of exports represents a slight decrease of 0.6% compared to the first half of 2018, the main export sectors continue to grow at a good pace: fuels and mineral oils, with 2,444 million, and a suida of 9%; agri-food, with 6,466 million euros and an increase of 4.8%; and the aeronautics, which grows 4.4%, to 1,472 million.

Record of participation in Alas Awards

The interest of companies in internationalization is also reflected in the index of participation of the Alas Awards, which, in its fourteenth edition, has received 168 nominations from companies, which represents an increase of 42% over the number of applicants of the past edition and the highest number recorded since the awards are held.

After the candidacy presentation phase, the Alas Awards developed their provincial phase of finalists, in which the eight jurors gathered in each of their provinces chose a total of 21 finalists for the three categories with provincial phase: Initiation to Export , Exporting and Implementation Company Abroad.

Provincial finalists

The different applications respond to each of the possible situations of the process of internationalization of companies. Thus, the category of “Export Initiation” aims to recognize companies that have started their activity abroad in the last three years, showing a positive and dynamic attitude in this process.

The winner chosen by the Main Jury in this section has been the Malaga company Ly Company (Lopeyano, S. L.), manufacturer of the packaging of the future that, in collaboration with Tetra Pack, has launched an innovative plant for packaging drinks and other liquid foods in cardboard format at its facilities in Alhaurín de la Torre. From there, it distributes its ecological vessels throughout Europe, the United States, Caribbean countries and the Middle East, its main international markets.

The modality of ‘Exporting Company’, in which Onubafruit SCA, of Huelva has been chosen, rewards that firm that has consolidated its international positioning in the last five years, mainly through the percentage of exports over total turnover and opening new markets. This second-grade cooperative, which brings together more than 1,000 producing families in the province of Huelva, specializes in the production and marketing of red fruits and its main markets are the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands.

The category of Exterior External Implementation ’is aimed at those companies that, in the development of their internationalization process, have established themselves through subsidiaries in other countries. The winner of this modality has been the Sevillian company Prodiel, Proyectos y Instalaciones Eléctricas. With an international turnover of 75% of the total, it specializes in engineering, development, construction and maintenance of electrical, renewable energy, telecommunications, and industrial projects, has 25 years of experience, delegations in eleven countries and more than 4,000 employees.

Trajectory and online commerce industry, Services and Navigation, Antonio Ponce Fernández; and the general director of Institutional Cooperation and Coordination of ICEX Spain, Export and Investments, Alberto Cerdán Borja.

Likewise, Blanca Torrent, general director of Aceitunas Torrent, participated as a businesswoman with a recognized international career; David Serrano CEO of the company MKG 2.0, as a professional expert in online marketing; and Encarna Freire, journalist of Economy of ABC of Seville, as representative of a media outlet.

The modalities of ‘International Ecommerce’ and ‘International Trajectory’ are directly chosen by the Main Jury of the Alas Awards. The first one is a new category, which is delivered for the second year, and which has had 13 nominations of companies submitted. It recognizes that company that in its international activity makes a planned and systematic use of electronic commerce, and other online promotion and communication tools, such as social media.

The winner of the ‘International Ecommerce’ category has been Ortiz & Reed (Orbex Solutions, S. L.), a company based in Linares (Jaén), specialized in footwear and men’s accessories. Since its inception this company has proposed an innovative and global commercial strategy that has allowed 100% of its turnover to be online. In addition to its own website, the Jiennense firm markets its products through flash sales platforms with great penetration in the online market.

The modality of Internacional International Trajectory ’is the only one to which the companies do not register themselves, but the winners are chosen by the main jury from among candidates that present their own members. They must be companies with an activity abroad exceeding ten years, which has consolidated its presence in international markets and that have contributed to disseminate the image of Andalusia abroad. In addition, this modality includes a second prize category, which chooses an institution or person specially linked to favor internationalization.

In the modality of the company, Grupo Migasa has been recognized, a Sevillian family company with almost a century of history in the agri-food sector, which has managed to develop a business success model linked mainly to olive oil that is present in 80 countries on five continents , with brands such as Ybarra, La Masía or Mueloliva.

In the entity modality, Landaluz, Food Business Association of Andalusia has been awarded, the reference entity of the agri-food sector of Andalusia, which brings together almost 70% of the total turnover of the sector in the community, with a combined turnover of 6,000 million Euros These are figures that highlight the specific weight with which he counts as an agribusiness entrepreneurial employer who has developed an intense task of promoting the sector nationally and internationally in the last 25 years.

 Main Jury

The Main Jury of the Awards has been formed by members of the Board of Directors of Extenda and prestigious businessmen and professionals. Among the former, the Deputy Minister of the Presidency, Public Administration and Interior, Antonio Sanz Cabello, served as president. Likewise, the Secretary General of Foreign Action, José Enrique Millo Rocher, participated on behalf of the Junta de Andalucía; the Secretary General of Agriculture, Livestock and Food, Vicente Pérez García de Prado; the general director of Analysis, Planning and Economic Policy, Esperanza Nieto; and the CEO of Extenda, Vanessa Bernad González.

Also as members of the Extenda Board of Directors, the General Secretary of the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Andalusia (CEA), Luis Fernández Palacios González de Castejón, participated in the jury; the president of the Andalusian Council of Chambers of Commerce, Indu