Tompla Business Group, part of a cartel that manipulated the paper envelope market in Spain for 33 years, from the first democratic elections until 2010, has made provisions of one million dollars in its 2023 accounts after several convictions courts assessing the claims of its clients for the damages suffered with these illegal agreements. The two main parties, the PSOE and the PP, have already obtained decisions partially confirming their demands.
In its consolidated accounts for 2023, the company which brings together the group’s activities, Grupo Empresarial Tompla (which until August was called Printeos), explains that “the administrators and legal advisors considered it necessary to constitute a provision as of December 31, 2023 “. for an amount of 14,061 thousand euros, sufficient to cover the risk derived from past events. This figure multiplies the provisions of 3.54 million that the company had made so far after receiving various convictions resulting from legal proceedings from certain customers.
In its accounts, accessible via Insight View, Tompla explains that after the financial year ending in December 2023 and before closing its accounts on March 27, it made “a provisional allocation” of 11.141 million “associated with the risks estimated at December 31.” 2023.”
The Deloitte audit report specifies that this last provision is “related to a customer complaint for which there is a conviction”. The firm, which has been auditing Tompla for more than 20 years, made a reservation in the 2023 accounts (there are several) due to the way in which the company accounted for this provision. The company charged it to the financial result, and not to the “Other results” section of the profit and loss account, as required by accounting regulations.
Complaints on this subject are piling up for Tompla. In its latest accounts, it indicates that during the 2023 financial year alone “it received five other similar requests from customers for alleged damages” suffered as a result of this cartel. According to him and his legal advisors, these claims “are time-barred.” He indicates that there is case law on the subject from the Supreme Court and the Court of Justice of the EU. “Even if it is possible that some of these trials will succeed, it is unlikely that they will be fully taken into account” and that “they will represent a financial loss”, he assures.
The first judgment that confirmed the lawsuit of a political party against Tompla was the one that, in March 2021, ordered the company to compensate the PSOE for the damages suffered as a result of the surcharges paid during those years. The socialists estimated the damage suffered (increased interest) at more than 8 million in their lawsuit, presented in June 2019.
Subsequently, the Provincial Court of Barcelona forced the subsidies received for the acquisition of these envelopes to be deducted from the calculation. The PSOE and Tompla took the dispute to the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court. The High Court admitted them to the proceedings on September 25.
After the PSOE’s trial against Tompla, the PP and the IU (including the PCE, among other formations) joined the legal battle. And it worked for the most popular ones. In November 2023, the Commercial Court 11 of Barcelona partially accepted the lawsuit filed in July 2022 by the party chaired by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, which, based on the previous claim raised by the PSOE, requested compensation of 10,602,701 , 21 euros.
The common demand presented by the IU, the PCE and other small left-wing groups was less fortunate. Their lawsuit was dismissed last February by the Barcelona Commercial Court for “lack of standing”, given that “either none of the plaintiffs appeared directly or they appeared in coalition with others” . In this case, the claim they sought amounted to €9,176,663.79 as of the trial date.
Sales of 302 million
The Tompla holding company achieved a turnover of 302 million in 2023, or 8.7% more, according to its latest accounts. “This increase is largely explained by the two electoral processes (municipal and regional elections and general elections) which took place in Spain in 2023,” he explains in his management report.
With an operating profit of 20.1 million and a gross operating profit (Ebitda) of 33.3 million, or 22% more, the group’s consolidated profit amounts to 3.8 million, compared to 10.5 million in 2022.
The company was founded in 1961 as a manufacturer of special envelopes for the then nascent mail order business. It was called Manufacturas Tompla until October 2012, when the CNC was already completing its investigation, the parent company of the group’s activities changed its name to Printeos, a name it abandoned last summer to return to its name ‘origin.
Tompla is based in Alcalá de Henares (Madrid) and in 2023 employed 1,647 people. The company began its international activity in the 70s and currently more than 63% of its revenues come from outside Spain. It operates in 12 European countries, with ten sales offices and 29 production centers in Spain, France, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Czech Republic and Morocco.
In 1992 it opened its factory in Alcalá, from which more than 50,000 orders are processed each year and which has become the largest envelope factory in the world. Since 2014, and faced with the decline in the paper envelope business, it has focused on the self-adhesive label sector through acquisitions in several countries. In 2023, this activity exceeded half of the activity.
Since this year, the holding company has had a new president, Antonio Borrachero Bonilla, whose family is historically linked to the shareholders of this company and to the insurance or football sector. Borrachero is the brother of the famous actress Alicia Borrachero and grandson of Antonio Borrachero Casas, who was director under the Franco regime of the Plus Ultra insurance company and president of the club of the same name, head of the subsidiary of the Real Madrid. . Tompla declined to comment.
The CNC resolution indicated that the validity of the cartel for more than 30 years in the national envelope market “probably contributed to excluding the Spanish market from the sectoral concentration processes occurring in Europe since the beginning of 2000, caused by excess supply. and the search for greater efficiency and economies of scale in production. While five large groups were created in Europe in those years, in Spain there were still 15 manufacturers at the time.
When this cartel was dismantled in 2013, the CNC imposed sanctions of more than 44 million euros on 15 companies. The highest fine (more than 20 million) was imposed on Unipapel (later Adveo), which was liquidated in 2019 and was released from payment for reporting the facts taking advantage of the so-called leniency program, which grants exemptions to participants in the fight against the facts. -competitive practices that collaborate on files.
Another company, Antalis, benefited from a 40% reduction in the amount of the fine. A reduction in the fine amount of 30% was applied to Tompla, Hispapel, Pacsa, Maespa and SAM (from Tompla). The actions of Copidata, also involved in the conspiracy, were archived as the statute of limitations expired.
After the Supreme Court upheld the sanctions in late 2017, many affected parties, not just political parties, went to court seeking redress. Among others, Bankoa (now Abanca), the NGO Manos Unidas (which has already obtained firm resolutions in the Supreme Court) and others like Cortefiel (now Tendam), Venca, Grupo Planeta, Mutua Madrileña, Caixa Ontinyent, Misiones Salesianas, Pontifical Missionaries Obras, Chamber of Commerce of Madrid or Ifema.
