You are Eulàlia Vilamala-Puig, 51, second-generation CEO of Cárritu, a 218-store Iberian discount supermarket chain founded by your father Joan in 1983 on three written-down compromisos. A new competitor has begun outpricing you by ignoring those three commitments. The board wants you to "evolve." The annual employee assembly is in 6 weeks. 14,200 staff and 1,100 suppliers are waiting to hear what you say.
The situation
Cárritu sells everyday food and household products through 218 stores across Spain (Valencia HQ; strong in Levante, Andalucía, Aragón, Murcia) and 22 stores in northern Portugal. Revenue €2.8B; 14,200 employees; 1,100 suppliers — 84% Iberian, of which 312 are single-sourced from Cárritu. The firm has been profitable every year since 1991 (EBITDA margin 5.8% last year, modestly below industry). Its three compromisos are printed on every store wall: (1) pagamos a 7 días — we pay suppliers within 7 days, every time. (2) Nadie cobra menos de 2,4 veces el SMI — no employee earns less than 2.4× minimum wage. (3) Nuestra marca propia siempre es la más barata — our own-brand is the cheapest in any basket comparison.
A new entrant — Sieta, a 92-store private-equity-backed format — has been undercutting Cárritu by 8–12% on a curated 200-SKU basket since last March. Their model: pay suppliers at 90 days, employ minimum-wage staff (no premium), own-brand sourced internationally. Cárritu's share is slipping in their overlap regions: −1.8 share points in the last 12 months in Sieta-overlap cities, flat elsewhere. The board (your sister Marta Vilamala-Puig, you, two independents from the 2019 partial sale to Foixá Capital, and one ex-Mercadona operator) wants you to revisit the three compromisos. Foixá Capital is privately direct: "the floor on wages is costing you the competitive battle."