“Roche's commitment to Barcelona is due to its open and multicultural spirit, international talent, as well as for its growing innovation digital ecosystem”
Josep Maria Vallmajó, General Manager of Roche Diabetes Care Spain
Competitive costs and an excellent communications network makes Barcelona-Catalonia ideal for locating headquarters for the European market. Below are some cases of top multinationals that base in Catalonia their operations for the continent and beyond.
With a staggering number of 9,255 multinational companies operating in the region, Catalonia is a prime location for business. Barcelona, in particular, is a top choice for many companies due to its ability to attract international talent and a skilled workforce. In addition, the concentration of industry and consumers in Catalonia provides easy access to a large market and efficient connections to the rest of the world.
Barcelona has also established itself as the second most popular startup hub in the European Union, second only to Berlin and ahead of cities such as Amsterdam or Stockholm.
Thanks to its strategic location, Catalonia is well connected to Asia and the Americas, making it an ideal location for product distribution to Southern Europe and North Africa. In addition, a significant 18.5% of the total number of companies headquartered in Spain are located in Catalonia.
If you're interested in discovering the main players and their locations in different key sectors, take a look at the international companies based in Catalonia.
“Roche's commitment to Barcelona is due to its open and multicultural spirit, international talent, as well as for its growing innovation digital ecosystem”
Josep Maria Vallmajó, General Manager of Roche Diabetes Care Spain
Nestlé bases its Spanish HQ in Barcelona. The company has 4 production centers and a global IT Hub, which is the company's worldwide technological center and where Nestlé is undergoing its entire digital transformation.
Headquartered in Barcelona, where it also has one of the main Novartis Biome network innovation hubs, Novartis has 3 production plants in Catalonia (semi-synthetic penicillin, sterile penicillin, and radiopharmaceuticals), and a Global Digital Hub.
The Roche Sant Cugat campus has a workforce of over 1,300 people, where the Spanish subsidiaries of Diagnostics and Diabetes Care are based. It is also home to one of the Group's main innovation and development centers.
A benchmark in e-health worldwide, the North American Teladoc Health has its headquarters in Barcelona, from where it leads its international business and operates a digital innovation center.
Amgen, Spain’s leading biopharmaceutical company, bases its Iberian HQ in Catalonia, working in Oncology, Hematology, Cardiology, and Osteoporosis. With a workforce of some 300 people in Barcelona, it has some 80 clinical trials in process.
Messer Ibérica operates in the Tarragona petrochemical complex, the largest in southern Europe. It supplies major customers in the sector through its gas pipeline network and its gas liquefaction and bottling plants in Tarragona and Alicante.
With Headquarters and 300 employees working in an international digital hub in Barcelona, the company also counts on a production plant and a logistic center in Sant Boi de Llobregat, which exports to 75 countries.