04 Oct Nalba Advisors-Expansion Interview
We are pleased to share an exclusive interview with our founding partners in the newspaper Expansión, on the occasion of our tenth anniversary. In this conversation, we delve into the firm’s trajectory, the milestones achieved during this decade, and the challenges and opportunities we see in the future. We invite you to read the full article to learn more about our evolution and commitment to excellence in the world of consulting.
Below we share the interview:
The boutique firm has just celebrated its 10th anniversary and since its creation has participated in more than 200 advisory projects for companies, mainly in the financial sector. Its turnover has grown by 20% annually since 2019. With 10 years recently completed, Nalba Advisors has just made a niche for itself in the consulting world. Its specialty is the financial payments sector and it is developing sustainability projects.
The firm was founded by Luis Peiró Sancho-Sopranis and Ricardo Fernández in May 2014. For them, both experienced in the world of the Big Four, it was a way to combine their personal lives with their professional ones after becoming first-time parents. The name Nalba thus corresponds to the names of their first daughters, Noa and Alba.
Shortly afterwards, Fernández left the company and Peiró remained at the helm as managing partner.
Since its creation, Nalba has worked on more than 200 projects and has supported more than 70 companies. Among them, large financial institutions such as Santander and CaixaBank. They have also worked for the main payment companies, such as Visa and Mastercard, and for medium-sized companies generally dedicated to card, POS and consumer finance businesses. On a more ad hoc basis, they have provided their services to insurance companies and large retailers.
Peiró began his career as an engineer at Michelin and Airbus, and later joined KPMG’s strategy team as a manager. At the beginning of his solo career, he executed projects as a freelance, “but the reception from clients was very good and the team began to grow from September of that same year to the 37 professionals that we are now on staff,” explains Peiró.
The new hires included both recent graduates and experienced professionals, although the staff is young, with an average age of no more than 30 years. “We care about having a top-notch team, and making sure they grow and develop at Nalba”, says the founder.
During the first two years, three of Peiró’s most trusted former colleagues from KPMG joined the firm and have become partners: Jaime Pérez Guitián, Luis de Miguel Barrachina and Pedro Rodríguez López.
Growth
Over the last five years, Nalba has been growing at around 20% per year in terms of both turnover and headcount. In 2023, they achieved a turnover of 2.96 million euros, 17% more than in the previous year. This year they expect to record growth of close to 15% as they are working with some 27 different clients directly or indirectly.
“Our strength and what sets us apart is that when a company comes to us for help, we usually know in advance what they are going to ask for and everything we are going to discuss with them to meet their objectives”, explains Jaime Pérez Guitián, who adds that they are great believers in the ‘boutique approach’.
When it came to launching Nalba, “we identified that there was no firm specializing in the payments sector in Spain, while it was clearly a dynamic and disruptive market, which usually implies the need for advice. This was confirmed by our network of contacts, most of them former colleagues. Some of them worked in companies in the sector and confirmed to us that they required support”, says Pedro Rodríguez López. The Nalba partner says that the first ones to give them a vote of confidence were recognized professionals from the financial sector, “which gave us a perfect base for the team’s development and growth”, he assures.
On its tenth anniversary, Peiró is proud of the recurrence of its clients. “A sign of this is the high rate of commitment to our consultancy: after 10 years of life, we are still working for our first clients and, in general, when we get new companies to work with, we tend to stay on as a long-term advisor.” He explains that a relevant part of their growth is based on client referrals, which has facilitated their entry into different areas and subsidiaries of large groups.
Sustainability
This year, Nalba is working to expand its corporate sustainability offering (ESG). To do so, they have brought in professionals such as Sergi Simón, who started at the Generalitat de Catalunya doing environmental controls. “Sergi is a professional with more than 25 years of experience in the field. He worked in sustainability projects when nobody was talking about it yet. We coincided in a mutual client and quickly saw the alignment and synergies”, explains Rodríguez López.
Currently, they have several clients in this area, most of which belong to the financial sector.