Albufeira Municipality recognized 73 companies in the municipality

According to a note from the Albufeira Chamber, 73 companies were distinguished, 43 of which were PME Líder 2022 and 30 PME Excelência 2022.

This year, the ceremony took place at “Garrafeira Soares Mixology & Education Studio”, a company created in Albufeira in 1983 by Maria Antónia and João Soares, first as a minimarket and then as a wine cellar, and which was honored by the Municipality.

As a Leading and Excellent SME, it employs more than 300 people and owns 28 stores. Dedicated to retail and wholesale trade, Garrafeira Soares is present in the lower Alentejo and on the Alentejo coast, throughout the Algarve, in Évora and Porto. Paulo Soares, son of the founders, revealed that the company “has projects” and guaranteed: “we will grow, to other points, but also to grow in Albufeira”.

The president of the City Council, José Carlos Rolo, congratulated the company for thinking about its growth from Albufeira: “a word of recognition for the work done by the Soares family, represented by Paulo, who was my student. This company is all over Apart from that, it continues to expand, but without leaving Albufeira and this should be an example for everyone. We are all Tourism”.

The mayor once again recalled the need to create a Ministry of Tourism to oversee the sector. As for this ceremony, it is “an act without pomp, but with circumstance, which is recognition and motivation for Albufeira’s businesspeople, with a view to working towards business and social improvement”, also remembering that of the 10,300 SMEs existing in Albufeira, more than 50 percent are in individual names.

The vice-president of the municipality, Cristiano Cabrita, said that “as responsible for the Entrepreneurship department, we recognize our SMEs as leader and excellence. The economic and financial performance of the recognized companies is an example of what we want in our municipality, companies that grow in Albufeira and for Albufeira. This ceremony also highlights the institutional proximity, so that Albufeira continues to assume itself as the capital of Tourism, which translates into more jobs and a better quality of life for everyone”.

Present at the ceremony were also representatives from IAPMEI and Turismo de Portugal, IP, namely Vera Gomez and Elisabete Félix. “We are witnessing a countercycle in Albufeira, that is, while in the rest of the country the Tourism sector is at the bottom of the list, here, it is in first place”, said Vera Gomez, paraphrasing, “we do not have in Algarve Tourism, we have to diversify the sector”.

The person responsible also recalled that this recognition translates into important information for the purposes of internationalization of companies, in addition to guaranteeing a set of benefits in the scope of financial products, with special conditions. For her part, Elisabete Félix emphasized the need to continue investing in innovation: “despite the good results, the challenges continue and involve investing in innovation and differentiation, in addition to a commitment to economic, social and environmental sustainability “.