• Ideas Adela Villanueva, the Extremaduran who has created Tinder for companies
  • Businesswomen Rebeca Minguela, technology entrepreneur and founder of Clarity: "Little is said about discrimination against women against women"
  • Qbo The Spanish company that lights up luxury shops and the best restaurants in the world

Álvaro Soláns García (Zaragoza, 1980), is the new president of Pikolin, a family group dedicated to the rest sector, which celebrates 75 years. He replaced his father, Alfonso Soláns Soláns (1948), at the head of the mattress company founded by his grandfather, Alfonso Soláns Serrano (1923-1996).

Álvaro Soláns will preside over the second European rest group and the first family group in the sector in Europe, leader in the markets of Spain and France, with a turnover of about 500 million euros per year.

Soláns is now destined to promote and consolidate the international expansion initiated under his father's leadership.

It is a multinational formed by more than thirteen commercial brands, a team of almost 3,000 employees and seven production plants in Europe, two in Southeast Asia and one in South America.

The Soláns family usually appears on the lists of great fortunes, such as those prepared by EL MUNDO or Forbes magazine, not only in Aragon but throughout Spain. In 2022, Alfonso Soláns and his two sons appeared at number 132 with a net worth of 300 million euros.

In addition to Pikolin, they own the Iberebro group dedicated to the real estate sector, they are the creators of the new Torre Village leisure space built on the site of the old mattress factory, the hotel and renewable energy with Ebrosol.

Felipe VI visited the new factory in 2018 on the occasion of the 70th anniversaryPIKOLIN

Also, for several decades they were the owners and presidents of the Real Zaragoza football team.

A LIFE DEDICATED TO BUSINESS

Álvaro, second son of Alfonso Soláns, holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Salamanca, a degree in Business Administration and Management from the Antonio de Nebrija University and an MBA from IE Business School.

Her professional career has been spent largely abroad, in 2006 she moved to the United States to work at Serta, a leading mattress brand in that country and of which Pikolin had been a licensee for Europe.

Two years later he returned to Zaragoza to hold the position of deputy director of the company's management.

In 2010 he moved to Paris to work at Cofel, the French subsidiary of the Aragonese firm, where he was attached to the general management. In 2012 he returned to Spain as vice president of the group and since then he has been assuming more responsibilities and representation functions.

Married and father of two daughters, those who work with him highlight his affable character and his interest in everything that concerns a group with very important growth challenges.

According to the company, Álvaro Soláns is now destined to "promote and consolidate international expansion" initiated under the leadership of his father, who has strengthened the company founded by his father, Alfonso Soláns Serrano.

On the occasion of the change, the new president thanked "very especially" his father and brother, "the support and trust placed in me."

He explained that he has lived Pikolín since childhood and "I have always thought that I would dedicate my life to developing the legacy of my father and my grandfather, looking to the future with enthusiasm, but learning from the past."

Alfonso Solans Solans, who has been named honorary president, said that "it is time to address this new stage. According to our family protocol, and from responsibility and conviction, making this transition a reality is the culmination of my commitment to the Pikolín group, which I will always carry in my heart."

His eldest son, Borja Soláns García, has been appointed vice president of the group and remains at the head of Dunlopillo Holdings Asia, a company with a long export experience to Southeast Asia.

PICCOLINO, PIKOLIN

On the occasion of its 70th anniversary, King Felipe VI visited in May 2018 the new facilities of the Pikolin factory, located in the Zaragoza Logistics Platform, in which 50 million euros were invested.

King Philip, at the PIKOLIN factory

The then president, Alfonso Soláns, recalled the origins of the company founded by his father, which began in 1948 with only six workers, in a workshop where they manufactured beds and bed frames of brass and metal steel.

At the event, fragments of some of his first black and white ads were projected with the mythical slogan A mi plin, yo duermo en Pikolin, which made the Monarch himself smile.

The slogan was born in the mid-60s and arose from the comment of a worker at the gas station where the founder regularly refueled.

It was also recalled that Pikolin emerged as a brand of one of the founder's trips to Italy looking for distributors in the 70s. Alfonso Soláns Serrano was a regular at a restaurant called Piccolino, hence the name of the company, shortening it and castellanizing it with the 'k'.


According to The Trust Project criteria

Learn more