Lavandería Romeral is a Spanish SME that employs 33 people. Although an outstanding example of corporate social responsibility and innovation, it is now facing rough times due to covid-19. At Santander, we offered Romeral our support to allow it to move forward. Ana Botín, Santander Group executive chairman, showcased this support in a surprise visit to Romeral’s facilities. 

At Santander, we work tirelessly to help small and medium-sized enterprises – an essential engine of our economy at all levels. We have always supported SMEs in a broad variety of ways, and one of the keys is that we listen so as to better understand their business and their needs. 

To see how our bank is helping SMEs, Ana Botín, Santander Group executive chairman, paid an unannounced visit to Lavandería Romeral, a Spanish enterprise on the island of Gran Canaria and a Santander customer.

During her visit, Ana Botín saw first-hand the company’s enormous capacity to launch corporate social responsibility, innovation, technology and work-life balance initiatives. 

Romeral CEO Yukonda Esparragoza told Ana Botín how the coronavirus pandemic had brought the company’s sales to practically zero given that its main customers are in the hotel sector. So Esparragoza went to a Santander branch to ask for help and propose new solutions to allow the company, which on the strength of its reputation has even earned such awards as the 2018 CINET Global Best Practices Award and the 2020 Best Laundry in Spain Award, could get through this bad patch. 

Thanks to the help it received from Santander, Romeral’s future plans now include implementing a microchip-based product control system, building a desalination plant and developing various training and work-life balance programmes. 

Romeral is an example of how progress can take place hand in glove with digitalisation, sustainability and work-life balance – a series of crucial values and priorities for us at Santander as well. In fact, the covid-19 pandemic has led us to double down. We want SMEs to feel, just as like Romeral did, that they can count on us to get through this.