Across Catalonia, thousands of small firms face closure simply because their owners are retiring without anyone to take over. A new report from the Centre de Reempresa de Catalunya highlights both the scale of the challenge and the success of efforts to preserve companies through structured handovers.
The study, covering 2011 to 2025, reveals that 5,365 businesses have been successfully transferred, saving more than 15,000 jobs and generating an induced investment of €281 million. With an average sale price of €76,400, most of these transactions involve micro-enterprises employing just a handful of workers. Nearly half of all transfers end positively, while a further 40 per cent of firms eventually close due to lack of buyers or other factors.
Xavier Panés, president of employers’ organisation CECOT, praised the collaboration between local councils, chambers of commerce and banks in making the initiative work. Guillem Arís, director of the Autoocupació foundation, underlined its social impact: ‘Behind every business sold there are people, stories and a social impact worth defending.’
The majority of sales stem from retirement, with personal reasons accounting for a quarter of cases. By sector, services and industry face more demand than supply, while commerce suffers a growing glut of unsold businesses. Laura Sallent, who heads Reempresa, said closures can devastate small towns where losing a shop forces residents to travel for essentials. Her team has now built a network of more than 80 local contact points to spot opportunities early.
Impressively, 82 per cent of firms transferred through the scheme were still operating at the end of 2024, a survival rate far higher than that of newly created businesses. Sallent stressed the need to expand visibility and rebalance mismatches between sectors.
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