CaixaBank launches Food&Drinks to boost specialisation in the hospitality industry

• The Food&Drinks community will offer financial and non-financial services adapted to suit the needs of bars, restaurants and cafés with the goal of supporting the catering market through a model based on specialisation and proximity.
• The new division is founded with 80,000 customers, establishing the bank as a benchmark for this sector.
• In light of the crisis arising from COVID-19, CaixaBank has offered customers specific support measures in order to preserve maximum liquidity and facilitate how they manage their activity.

CaixaBank, Spain’s leading retail bank, reasserts its commitment and support of the hospitality sector with the launch of CaixaBank Food&Drinks. The new business division. created to boost the food and beverage hospitality market via a model based on proximity to bars, restaurants and cafés, will be coordinated through a specialised and omni-channel service. The goal of this initiative is to provide support to the hospitality market and offer businesses in this sector the customised service they require through products and services that are adapted to suit their specific needs, both financially and in terms of management, and even through non-financial services that provide added value to their businesses in fields such as training and consultancy.

CaixaBank, chaired by Jordi Gual and led by chief executive officer Gonzalo Gortázar, is a trailblazer for businesses in the hospitality sector with a portfolio of upwards of 80,000 customers. Currently, one out of every four hospitality establishments are CaixaBank customers and the bank leads the way in annual turnover of card payments in the sector, with a 25.5% market share.

Through the launch of Food&Drinks, CaixaBank again highlights that it strives to continue to be a linchpin for the recovery of the Spanish economy, supporting the specific needs of a sector that is so fundamental for the country, and in 2019 represented 6.2% of the national GDP. Throughout the last year, the bank has offered specific support measures to its customers from this sector, featuring the granting of liquidity facilities and moratoria on loans, with a view to enabling these types of companies to maintain maximum liquidity.

CaixaBank's Food&Drinks division provides bars, restaurants and cafés with a differential product and service offering, as well as a network of sector experts in all the bank's branches that will help them to optimise the profitability of their businesses and simplify their daily activities. The product and service catalogue offering will range from technology solutions for charging payments for both physical and online sales, to financing adapted to suit the projects and needs of these kinds of businesses. The bank will also offer customers specific management tools geared towards digitalisation that will enable them to simplify their day-to-day business in matters such as arranging bookings, online orders and sales analysis.

Food&Drinks Community

With the goal of promoting the digital experience and offering added value through the service and provision model, Food&Drinks is founded as a community of customers who will have exclusive access to sector-specific financial and non-financial contents. Users will be able to view all products and services and receive specialised consultancy from their trusted adviser without having to go to the branch, via a digital environment created exclusively for Food&Drinks customers in CaixaBankNow.

The Food&Drinks community will also provide content such as training, speeches, business consulting, as well as access to products from strategic partners in the sector in the best conditions. Furthermore, customers can access CaixaBankLAB Campus, the web portal created by CaixaBank and elBullifoundation aimed at supporting the professional initiatives of the gastronomy sector and its related industries through training. 

CaixaBank, the value of specialisation

CaixaBank is a leading financial group and innovator with over 15 million customers. The bank has the broadest commercial network on the peninsula, with around 4,000 branches, and the largest digital customer base. The organisation undertakes a socially-responsible model of universal banking and is considered by Merco as the number one company in corporate responsibility and governance in the Spanish financial sector. Thanks to its specialisation model, with a value proposal of products and services adapted to suit each sector, CaixaBank is a benchmark for the business sector, including commercial establishments, businesses, self-employed workers and entrepreneurs.

To provide service to companies with a turnover of under €2 million, as well as to shops, businesses and self-employed workers, CaixaBank has a Businesses and Entrepreneurs division, which develops products and services adapted to suit the specific needs of this sector with personal and comprehensive advice, not only through financial support, but also offering personal advice on everyday business management aspects. This customised service is currently offered at over 50 Business branches located throughout the country and by over 2,500 advisers specialised in this sector, across the bank's branch network.