Enric Greses, our colleague Enric, head of the administration department, leaves the company due to retirement. He has spent his entire professional life in Peris, since he finished his economics degree and up to the present, that is to say 40 years.
He has witnessed the evolution of Peris during four decisive decades for us. In fact,he knew and worked side by side with Vicente Peris, founder of the company, whom he affectionately calls ‘Uncle Vicente’.
During these years he has been a magnificent professional and an excellent partner, and from Peris we wanted to give him a voice, to tell us some curiosities of his time in the company, and show him everything how much we value his work and how much we will miss him. Thanks for so much, Enric! Peris will always be your home.
The images that accompany this interview are from the tribute we paid him in the company for his farewell 🙂
How did you come to Vicente Peris?
It was through a contact from my father. I was originally going to go to another company and ended up at Vicente Peris.
I had just finished my degree, I am an economist, and the truth is that I didn’t have much of an idea, because when you finish studying you don’t know anything about anything and you start learning about everything. I was like a sponge.
At that time the company had no computers, not even a photocopier, and accounting was handled externally. It became clear that it was necessary to modernize the department, we put in a photocopier, then a computer. It was undoubtedly a promising stage because we were going through a generational change.
How do you remember the figure of Vicente Peris, the founder of the company?
The year I joined, Vicentín lived there, and he was a person with a tremendous character.
Uncle Vicente was charismatic, a person you can’t forget.
I remember taking him to Barcelona to visit the markets. We would both go and do the commercial management, because he was directly in charge of that and of the control of the purchase of the merchandise.
It was a time when the company had many fields of its own and the main product was melon, particularly the rochet melon, which was something that characterized us because it was a variety that was only planted here, and that made us very well known.
What have you seen change in the company?
At the beginning, administration tasks were not given any relevance, I was told: ‘Aixó no té importancia, xiquet’ (that’s not important, kid).
When uncle Vicente died a few years after I was here, we thought it would be complicated to get back on our feet, but his daughter Rosa Peris took over the business and we took off. She gave importance to administration and organization.
Ximo, her brother, was in charge of the warehouse, Alberto, her husband, was in charge of product purchasing, and she was in charge of sales management.
In administration they let us do it. Rosa trusted us and little by little we resurfaced, even though the situation was not at all easy.
What are the most important milestones of those years?
The most important success has always been to create the brands. The smartest thing Uncle Vicente did was to create the Vicentín brand. Gradually, this brand was able to compete with other well-known melons and surpassed them in sales because it had a high quality and was significantly cheaper. In Barcelona it worked very well.
In Madrid the market was tougher, the clients were very difficult. But thanks to Rosa’s management we were able to enter El Corte Inglés to make them our own brand, when doing so was quite a feat, and that allowed us to open a market in the capital.
What do you take away from all these years?
I have many memories. For me, when I think of the Peris family, they feel like family to me.
Now as a worker my working life is ending, but I’ll take that with me.
To new people coming into this company, what would you tell them?
Peris has a long way to go and being part of this family business can give them a lot. They have respected me because I have always respected them. I have given the best of myself and when I have needed them they have opened their hearts to me.
What are you going to do in retirement?
I have always liked the countryside. I am going to enjoy my orchard and my organic orange trees, of course, very well accompanied by my friends.