From a restaurant in Sor Ángela de la Cruz, next to the business area par excellence of Madrid, to managing 16 premises in well-known areas of the capital and in the exclusive urbanization of La Moraleja. The La Máquina hotel group, about to celebrate four decades of history, has conquered the most wealthy palates. But this did not free him, like the rest of the sector, from going through an annus horribilis in 2020 due to the coronavirus. The company's latest registered accounts describe a year to forget in which turnover, which exceeded 50 million per year before the pandemic, plummeted to less than half. The good situation from which he started, yes, allowed him to avoid the red numbers and close the year with meager earnings of 217,000 euros.

Restaurante La Máquina S.A. is apparently a well-oiled company. It was born with a store in 1982, currently called La Máquina Original, which boasts on its website of being "a benchmark for the best national markets". With that letter of introduction it is easy to imagine his philosophy: good product and careful service at a competitive price (which is not the same as cheap). With these weapons, he expanded and opened new restaurants —from replicas of the classic to more informal proposals for tapas— always in wealthy neighborhoods.

The axis of La Castellana, Chamberí and the Salamanca neighborhood are its natural habitat. And its only incursion outside the capital term is also a declaration of intent: Alcobendas is a municipality attached to Madrid that houses one of its most expensive urbanizations. It is precisely in the Plaza Moraleja shopping center that La Máquina has installed two adjoining spaces. It is also present in three gourmet gastronomic areas of El Corte Inglés.

A family business

The group has remained a family business. The founder, Carlos Tejedor López, has a 70% stake according to the accounts filed with the registry. His second wife, María Victoria Mingorance, has 5% and Sergio Tejedor Mingorance presides over the firm with 4% of the shares. Two sons from the head of the family's first marriage, Carlos and Javier Tejedor Álvarez, once fought for control of the company and took the matter to court, according to El Economista. The first of them still has a 5% stake and the second is not reported in the annual accounts. But it is clear that the business has not left the circle of its creator: Mingorance is the only one of the eight shareholders that does not bear the last name Tejedor.

In short, things have gone well. In 2019, the group had a turnover of 52.4 million euros and employed 437 people (345 permanent workers and 92 temporary). At the end of the financial year, its profits were close to 5 million euros. But then what no one expected happened. The covid-19 jumped from China to the whole world and in Spain it translated into containment measures, which caused "a very significant decrease in sales and activity by companies and their benefits", according to the annual report. .

The blow of the virus was inescapable. The group entered 54% less, for a total billing of 23.9 million that practically erased the benefits. In employment, it was noted above all in temporary hiring, a common practice in the sector to meet the peaks of activity in high season, which was reduced to a minimum. The permanent workforce endured better (223 workers in 2020). The company reacted quickly to the first confinement, the strictest that Spain has faced. He requested an ERTE (temporary suspension of employment) on March 18, 2020, four days after the declaration of the state of alarm. The files affected 333 workers from La Máquina and another 19 from PNZ 37 Expert Restorers. This is a subsidiary company that presents consolidated accounts with the parent company and that manages a place halfway between a restaurant and a cocktail bar. The payment of salaries went from almost 11 million in 2019 to 5.7 million last year. The group quantifies the savings obtained by the exemption in the payment of Social Security contributions as a result of the ERTE at more than 884,000 euros.

The cocktail bar bore the brunt of the pandemic. In the section on events after the year, the company reports that the restrictions on nightlife prevented it from resuming activity at that venue until March 18 of this year. That is, a year with the blinds down. In restaurants, the reopening was possible earlier and was done progressively already during 2020. In all but two, La Esquina and Puerta 57, two spaces with views of the Santiago Bernabéu lawn. Real Madrid's decision to remodel its stadium has "significantly" affected the activity of both. In the case of the first, moreover, the works coincided with the expiration of the contract for the exploitation of the space. Today on the group's website it no longer appears among its restaurant portfolio. Puerta 57 is said to be “temporarily closed”.

This is not the only change compared to the fateful 2020. The group inaugurated La Parrilla de La Máquina just after last summer. It is located at number 22 Jorge Juan street, the epicenter of leisure in the Salamanca neighborhood, where the group had the Lux restaurant until then. A new proposal that shows that La Máquina has not stopped, and that also makes it clear that it likes to advance on familiar ground.