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Matins Esade with Rosa Carabel, CEO of the EROSKI Group

The CEO of the EROSKI Group highlighted the decisive role of its cooperative identity in the company’s restructuring and advocated for a leadership style based on common sense, focus, and people.
Rosa Carabel

 

The cooperative model has been at the core of EROSKI’s transformation and is one of the main factors explaining its current position. This was emphasized by Rosa Carabel, the group’s CEO, during her speech at a new session of the Matins Esade, where she reviewed the company’s evolution and the key elements of its leadership model. “If we weren’t a cooperative, the EROSKI Group would not be the EROSKI Group it is today,” Carabel stated, summarizing a core idea that underpinned her entire intervention.

EROSKI is Spain’s leading cooperative company and one of the main food retail groups in the country. In 2024, it reached revenues of €5.885 billion, with 1,502 stores and a workforce of 27,625 employees.

The executive contextualized the company’s evolution from its origins as a consumer cooperative in the Basque Country to its period of significant growth between 1995 and 2007, marked by acquisitions and business diversification. The 2008 crisis marked a turning point that forced the organization to undertake a process of reorganization and financial restructuring, including divestments and a stronger focus on higher-performing areas.

Throughout this process, the cooperative model played a decisive role, both in decision-making and in maintaining internal cohesion. “We are talking about a cooperative made up of thousands of people—from the CEO to the butcher—who need to speak the same language,” Carabel explained. It was also essential “never to lose our essence or our values, especially the value created in stores and for customers.”

Rosa Carabel

The Answer in identity

Carabel also underscored EROSKI’s identity as “the largest cooperative company in Spain, with a governance model shared equally between consumers and employees,” highlighting its commitment to equality: 76% of its workforce are women, and they represent 74% of leadership positions. In this regard, she described herself as “an advocate for women in business.”

In the second part of her speech, the CEO delved into the company’s leadership model, structured around three principles she defined as a mantra: “common sense, focus—knowing clearly where you are heading—and people as the protagonists.”

This approach translates into concrete behaviors within the organization: “clarity in direction and purpose, agility to remove obstacles, autonomy in decision-making, and the building of trust-based relationships.” This model is also supported by a methodology implemented in 2022 that aims to open up strategy execution to the entire organization.

“This change marked a before and after in how we operate as an organization. We are faster, more adaptable, and our people are more motivated,” she stated. In this context, she also highlighted the importance of continuous monitoring, with weekly reviews to ensure alignment and maintain focus.

Finally, Carabel pointed to the role of artificial intelligence as a tool that should reinforce this model, “not by diminishing it, but by enhancing capabilities and empowering people.”

Rosa Carabel

Watch the session video at the Esade Alumni Content Hub 

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