Her father’s daughter

Linda Hall

JUANA ROIG, the 32-year-old daughter of Mercadona’s owner Juan Roig, heads the supermarket chain’s online division.

Responsible for leading the company’s digital transformation for the last five years, she was recently asked if she ever considered taking over from her father.

Speaking during a podcast for the Barcelona Itnig startups hub, Roig immediately answered no. She said she hoped that particular moment would be a long time in arriving.

She added that it made sense for an executive to be a family member before declaring that shares, not the post, were inherited. “We’d see who was bestprepared when the time came although we’re not there yet,” she said, echoing her father’s pronouncement that legacies can be bequeathed but not management or jobs.

Juana Roig also dismissed the possibility of floating Mercadona on the stock exchange or selling the chain.

“Right now, it wouldn’t be sold for anything in the world, it’s like my father’s fifth daughter,” she declared. She admitted that being her parents’ daughter was probably her career’s most relevant achievement, emphasising that it had not been exactly easy. “Being the boss’s daughter is hard, as it has its good side and its bad side. You wear a label, you know that and you accept it. Nobody sees the real you,” she said.