Alter Capital Enters Trending Corporate with a €3 Million Investment
The manager Alter Capital has entered the Sevillian company Trending Corporate with a fund participated by the Junta de Andalucía and another national one, as confirmed to ABC by Antonio Catalán, one of its founding partners. Alter Capital has subscribed 10% of the capital of this company, which manufactures and markets cosmetic products and food supplements, where it has invested three million euros, according to sources consulted by ABC.

The group has a healthy and functional food division with its own brands of chewing gum, smoothies and ice cream, although its "core" is in the distribution of cosmetics with its own brands (makeup and hair care) and independent, both Korean (facial care) and American (makeup and Brazilian straightening). In 2022, it also absorbed a company specialized in Korean cosmetics. It has Disney licenses to market masks, hair plushes, shade palettes, bath bombs or gels.

“Accelerated Growth: From €700,000 to €22 Million in Five Years”
The company has gone from billing 700,000 euros in 2017 to 9.9 million euros in 2021 and 16 million in 2022. Last year recorded an ebitda of 4.5 million euros, according to Catalán, who advances that this year they will close with a turnover of 22 million euros. Its commercial network is segmented into the "retail" channel, "supermarkets and supermarkets" and pharmacies (it serves more than a thousand offices).

Trending Corporate has more than 5,000 points of sale in Europe, both small shops and perfumeries and online stores. However, Catalán points out that they have the potential to reach 10,000 points of sale. With subsidiaries in Miami (USA) United Kingdom and Portugal, the firm sells in 17 European countries, and its functional gums are sold in the United States, Ecuador, Colombia or Jordan, among other markets.

Origin and Evolution of the Company Founded in 2017”
The company was born as "Trending Import" in 2017 by the hand of Antonio Catalán Navarro and Ulises Guillén Castilla, although now it has changed its social name to "Trending Corporate" Currently the company is in the hands of Catalán, with 54%; four partners with 10% each (Ulises Guillén, the Cordoba entrepreneurs José Luis Rojano and Federico Calzado and the Alter Capital fund); and two capitalist partners with 4 and 2% of the shareholders. The entry of Rojano and Calzado occurred in 2022 with a capital increase, so that Trending Corporate absorbed the three companies of those two Cordoba entrepreneurs.

Catalán started working in banking but with the banking restructuring of 2008 he was unemployed and set up a neighborhood store in Mairena del Aljarafe, "where-he-says-we-enstoored three years with bread, press and videos." "I looked for a job and was hired by the Catalan company Future Cosmetic, a national leader in the low cost cosmetics sector, where I learned a business model," explains Antonio Catalán (Seville, 1983).

“The Birth of Trending Corporate and Consolidation of the Business Model”
"I set up Trending Corporate with a client, Ulises Guillén, who had an online store. We saw the opportunity to set up a distribution of cosmetics from Asia and America," says Catalán, director of sales and marketing of the firm, who recalls that to begin with he borrowed from friends and family. "Later we decided to hire marketing staff, create facilities with mechanized services and devote a lot of time to social networks and own brands after incorporating the factories of Cordoba partners," he explains.

“Production in Baena and Huelva: Chewing Gum, Shakes, and Healthy Foods”

In its plant in Baena (Córdoba) it manufactures chewing gum with energy, relaxing or tanning functions, which can be purchased at Carrefour or Aldi. On that same plant he makes milkshakes and powdered ice cream. In addition, it has a healthy food factory in Huelva, where it makes gelled fruit snacks with the appearance of a gommy, which it sells with its own brand (Pure Fruit) and which it also makes for several distribution companies.

On the other hand, in Huévar (Seville) it has a logistics center, where in principle it announced an investment of five million euros, a project that was modified as a result of the war in Ukraine and the rise in the prices of raw materials. "We changed the idea and instead of concentrating a logistics center, where we will make an investment of between two and three million euros.

To house his offices, he bought in the PIBO polygon, in Bollullos de la Mitación (Seville), in whose reform he will invest almost a million euros. Although it already has a logistics center in Seville, it proposes to have others in different European cities to guarantee services on the continent.

“Alter Capital Plans to Open an Office in Málaga and Strengthen the Andalusian Ecosystem”

«Alter is the only manager with registered and operational headquarters in Andalusia regulated by the CNMV. Two years ago we received the trust of the Idea agency and several "family offices" to invest a fund of 15 million euros in Andalusian SMEs via capital or participatory loans," explains Ángel González, partner of this manager, which expects to have invested one hundred percent by the end of this year. "We hope that the new Administration will clearly help strengthen the regional ecosystem of managers. For a better development of this type of investment, it is essential to be able to maintain the know-how in our land and be close to Andalusian entrepreneurs. Our goal for next year would be to open an office in Malaga," he adds.

Fuente:https://www.abc.es/sevilla/economia/fondo-alter-capital-compra-firma-sevillana-trending-20231108190728-nts.html