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Interview with Oscar Cantaré, Prodelec, Mollet del Vallès

Oscar has been a Cambridge in-company student for the last 18 months. He’s currently studying both English and French at his company in Mollet.

Could you tell us a little bit about your company and what you do?

Sure. We’re an electrical wholesaler for professional installers and facilities services. Next year we’ll have been in the business for 40 years. Over the last 12 years we have been moving from solely supplying products into providing services. We now have an engineering department to assess the project, draft an electrical blueprint, select the appropriate goods and materials and finally put everything together. We do plumbing and heating, have a lighting department and also manage the energy efficiency of each project.

Does the company have an international perspective?

As well as our warehouses in Mollet and Cornellà, we have a sister company in Tangiers which opened in April last year to support many of our Spanish clients who are expanding into this territory. In addition, Prodelec is a member of a national group of wholesalers called Electroclub who we also represent at an international level through our Imelco group, meeting suppliers from all over the world to negotiate agreements for our members.

How important are languages to your business?

Once you have business abroad it’s essential to understand someone in their own language. For example, in Tangiers I wouldn’t get the same reception if I didn’t speak French. But for global business, English is the language you can’t do without. We used to have translators for our international meetings, but in 2009 we decided not to include them in the budget, forcing us to speak in English together. The result has been that we’ve fostered much closer relationships with each other.

That said, I’ve just got back from a business trip to Australia and I have to admit that when I arrived I wondered whether they were actually speaking English. Once you tune into the accent, however, you realize that they ARE in fact speaking English!