Mercadona employers' change of direction in the midst of a price crisis. The board of directors of the Spanish Association of Distributors, Supermarkets and Supermarkets (Asedas), which includes among its associates other large chains such as Dia, Lidl or Ahorramas, has agreed on Thursday to appoint the former director of CiU Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida as new president of the organization. He replaces Antonio Garrigues, who has agreed to assume the honorary presidency.
The Asedas companies, which represent 75% of the food distribution area in Spain, have considered in the first of these appointments the "great career" personal and professional of Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida, who will contribute to the defense of interests so broad as those represented by the Asedas companies "an experience and vision that will help them to continue serving society based on the values they share, among which dialogue and the search for consensus stand out".
For its part, Duran i Lleida has assessed the importance of local food distribution represented by Asedas supermarkets as a sector that creates employment and wealth, essential for the territorial structure of Spain and essential for the daily life of citizens.
The intense legislative activity that is being developed around the sector at the regional, national and European level -which covers, among others, issues such as the circular economy, consumption or commercial relations- constitutes, likewise, an aspect of interest in which the new president of Asedas hopes "to be able to strengthen the work of the association to the maximum".
"The figure of Duran i Lleida represents not only the values that try to inspire the decisions of Asedas since its foundation, more than twenty years ago, but also its present objectives, when facing important challenges such as the environmental, economic and social sustainability of the model of food distribution in our country, at a time of change conditioned, in addition, by the serious multifactorial crisis that we are experiencing", they have highlighted from the association.
Likewise, Asedas has thanked Antonio Garrigues Walker for his "successful" work carried out as president of the organization during the last four years. For this reason, he has agreed to continue accompanying the Asedas companies as honorary president of the organization, after carrying out a "very important task, at particularly difficult times, marked among others by the Covid-19 pandemic".
During this time, according to Asedas, Garrigues Walker has contributed "in a very personal and committed way" to raising the social recognition of the supermarket sector and "making visible" the strategic work of the more than 322,000 employees in the sector.
"We are very grateful to Antonio Garrigues Walker, a key person in the Spanish and international legal world, for his advice, support and closeness to the reality of Spanish supermarkets in recent years. This attitude will continue to inspire us from his work as honorary president of Asedas", pointed out the CEO of Asedas, Ignacio García Magarzo.
In addition, he welcomed Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida as the organization's new president: "Our businessmen have valued the involvement of Josep Antoni Durán i Lleida with the legislative, economic and social challenges that the sector faces; which, together to the conciliatory and dialogue spirit that has always inspired his career, will be of great help to us in the coming years to continue advancing in a proximity distribution model at the service of society".
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