La Cucharona began with a kitchen and a shop in Madrid’s Chamberí district, but the ambition was always wider than serving walk-in customers. We developed a varied, frequently changing offer of home-style meals for office workers, companies, meetings and events, including group orders and our own deliveries. Business customers were essential to growing beyond the immediate neighbourhood.

I worked personally on product development, finding new customers and managing business accounts. Each customer had different needs: number of diners, budget, frequency, meal choice, invoicing conditions and delivery arrangements. The aim was to offer commercial flexibility while keeping kitchen operations, pricing and margins under control. For selected clients, we created tailored ordering journeys and conditions.

The business demanded constant coordination of purchasing, suppliers, recipes, production, inventory, staffing, deliveries, customer service and cash flow. The variety that helped us sell also made planning harder. Orders came through different channels in the morning and had to be ready for dispatch by lunchtime.

To manage this, I built automations with Apps Script in Google Sheets. One tool brought Shopify orders and other incoming orders together, arranged them for kitchen preparation, grouped products and helped print dispatch labels. I also worked on automatic supplier-invoice filing and management spreadsheets for sales and expenses.

I used Odoo for customers, point of sale, invoices, quotations and product records. After the initial set-up by consultants, I personally adapted fields, views and processes and created automations. Separately, I managed Shopify, including catalogue, photography, products, offers and availability. My role was to understand and adapt tools to the actual operation, not to build an enterprise ERP from scratch.

In 2025 I tackled an important production-planning issue with the team. Many meal combinations were recorded as one sale without capturing which specific dishes had been chosen. As a result, we lacked reliable demand information for each recipe. I worked on collecting that detail across shop, B2B and delivery channels so that sales history could improve kitchen, purchasing and staffing plans. This involved commercial decisions, data and production at the same time.

The experience required daily involvement across every function. It also allowed me to work in far greater depth on subjects that are normally split among departments in a large company.

Own business · B2B/B2C meal production and service · Operations, customers, teams and P&L

At Kaelis I worked with accounts where a purchasing decision rarely depended on one person. Beyond procurement, I needed to understand the product users and the people responsible for operations, service and quality. I spent time understanding their priorities, the history of each tender and why we might win or lose an opportunity.

Commercial projects required constant coordination with suppliers and colleagues. I participated in proposals and tenders, negotiated pricing and terms, and worked with those responsible for product specifications, quantities, lead times, quality and logistics. Samples or prototypes were coordinated when needed as part of a much broader offer.

After winning a contract I continued to work directly with the customer and our internal functions to make sure delivery met what had been agreed. I used Salesforce to manage opportunities, forecast closures, track renewals and understand why some deals stalled or were lost.

This was a period of international commercial development with frequent contact across customers, suppliers, operations, supply chain, quality and finance.

Managed revenue ≈€4m → €8m · Opened Air France and TAP

Much of the business was in high-volume, tight-margin categories. Negotiations required careful thought about pricing, promotion, SKU mix, volume and profitability, including the consequences for factories and supply.

I worked with retailers and distributors in Spain and Portugal, coordinating regularly with production, logistics, quality, finance and the French head office. Forecasts by customer and SKU mattered both for product availability and for avoiding excess stock.

Iberian commercial perimeter ≈€18m

Assignments began as commercial proposals and ended with people working on the ground, materials, routes, schedules and many issues that had to be solved quickly. I followed projects from the client relationship through to field execution.

For Starbucks CPG we combined in-store product tastings with a summer promotional roadshow. Organising the teams and logistics well was essential to deliver what had been promised to the customer.

Starbucks CPG · Tastings reaching approximately 100,000 consumers

This was full business-unit responsibility. Alongside sales targets, I was involved in budget, margin, operating expenses, forecasts, staffing structure, incentives and decisions to improve performance. Corporate Finance, Controlling and Human Resources supported us, and I worked closely with each of them on matters affecting my unit.

Vodafone’s overall targets had to become targets by territory, store, product and even salesperson. Locations differed in trading hours, footfall and capacity. With the Controlling team I developed a detailed Excel system to allocate targets, monitor sales and calculate incentives by individual and by store.

Daily sales reviews were supported by five Area Managers. We analysed gaps by looking at calendars, absences, new hires, training, store hours and local potential. Then we decided on staffing, reinforcements, resource allocation, commissions and commercial priorities.

I was involved in expanding Vodafone’s outsourced retail network beyond El Corte Inglés into Carrefour and Alcampo, coordinating with the operator and retail chains. We also ran ONO stores in Madrid and Andalusia, together with other telecom-related services and products.

During this period our unit received Vodafone’s Best Sales Company recognition for three consecutive years.

Revenue ≈€5m → €10m a year · 5 Area Managers · 200+ people · 60+ outlets

Arla Foods already sold products in Spain through TGT, its distributor at the time. The challenge was to create and consolidate direct relationships with national and regional retailers, while maintaining the supply operation and service continuity.

Developing direct sales meant building relationships with retail chains, negotiating commercial terms and coordinating with the Danish teams to serve those accounts. We also worked with regional distributors to expand Arla Foods’ reach in Spain.

Direct Spanish business: €0 → ≈€5m in three years

It was a thorough introduction to the food business. At the beginning I spent several weeks in southern France visiting the market and learning about the products and Mamie Nova Gourmand. Later I visited nearly every Carrefour hypermarket in mainland Spain to record yoghurt ranges, references and prices. That work became a commercial source we continued to use.

I lived near one of the company’s main production sites and joined Monday project-review meetings with factory teams, marketing, sales and finance. During the week I spoke directly with production and other functions to prepare answers and resolve the industrial aspects of opportunities.

Based in France, I handled relationships with retailers and distributors in Spain, Portugal and Italy, both for private-label products and brands. It was highly cross-functional work, continually involving sales, factory teams, quality and logistics.

Southern Europe revenue ≈€9m · Mamie Nova and private label