Just behind Puerta del Sol, in the heart of Madrid,
Almacén de Pontejos
has managed to withstand the passing of the years, new technologies and the difficulties of the coronavirus.
This
centenary haberdashery,
inaugurated in 1913 by
Antonio Ubillos Baztarrica,
remains in the same premises in Plaza de Pontejos 2, is still run by
the same family,
currently the fourth generation, and has adapted to the new times with a renewed website and an active presence on social networks.
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Starting from the beginning, Antonio Ubillos left
his native Guipúzcoa
at the beginning of the 20th century to look for a future.
As he was not the first-born of the family, he did not have to
inherit the family farmhouse,
so he decided to move to Madrid, where he began to
work as an apprentice
in his uncle Ángel Caso's store, becoming a store manager.
His entrepreneurial spirit led Antonio to open his own haberdashery and, after renting the current store, owned by the family since 1975, he went to work.
Among his first successes: at a time when no one married without their trousseau, he decided to bring
the lace directly from Switzerland.
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Upon his death, the Pontejos Warehouse would pass
into the hands of his son-in-law,
Máximo Rueda,
and his grandson,
Antonio Rueda. Today it is his
great-grandchildren
who run the store: María Rueda, administrative manager, and her brother Antonio, dedicated to the commercial area, along with his uncle Juan, who acts as general manager. "The secret of a family business is that the people who inherit the company
feel it, have lived with it and like it very much," says
María in a video posted on Facebook.
With more than
50,000 different items
in the physical store, which are constantly being renewed as they receive about 100 products each week, the prices in the Pontejos Warehouse range
from five cents for buttons to 200 for
artisan
sewing
boxes. With such a diversity of items, including endless sizes, shapes and colors, his specialty has always been customer service: before the pandemic,
his 30 employees
served around
2,500 people a day.
And now they continue to do so, but by appointment.
"What is not found in Pontejos is not found anywhere, so what we try to do is keep products that have been sold since the beginning of the store, such as the cotton jersey so that it does not cause allergies and a little big for the older ladies or sock buckles for gentlemen who, even if they no longer wear it, some still wear it. And we combine it with everything new on the market.
We go to fairs in Europe
, representatives come here and we are always changing " Maria says in this regard in the aforementioned video.
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Selling
threads, clasps, needles, fringes, ribbons or yarns,
in 2019 they had a turnover
of more than 2.7 million
euros, achieving a profit of about 300,000 euros.
All this after
a century of history
in which they have been adapting the store to new needs: from computers to control inventories and sales to the online store, which they renewed coinciding with the forced closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Although the most loyal customers continue to prefer the physical store to see the genre or ask for advice at the counter, online commerce guarantees home deliveries in 48 or 72 hours.
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In addition, on the top floor, the Pontejos Warehouse has
its own academy,
where they offer all kinds of classes, now face-to-face and online, so that their clients can learn to use the sewing machines that they also sell or
sewing, patchwork or crochet
techniques
.
His most illustrious clients include
Sara Montiel, Lolita, Belén Esteban
or many couturiers.
And with nearly 25,500 followers on Facebook, more than 14,000 on Instagram and 3,200 on Pinterest, Almacén de Pontejos has a large presence on social media.
From its website, clients can subscribe to its
periodic newsletters
to find out all the news.
Among the latest products available in the online store are a
work classifier,
a gold-plated sewing scissors or various sewing kits with up to 20 different colored bobbins, tweezers or pins.
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