Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks - Rypo, the Spanish real estate company created by twenty-somethings that has sold more than 80 million masks during the pandemic, now looks to the stem cell business.

March 2020 will be a month remembered the rest of history: on the 11th, the WHO," deeply concerned about the alarming levels of spread of the disease and its severity, and also alarming levels of inaction, " declared COVID-19 a pandemic; 3 days later, Spain decreed confinement.

In contrast to the" inaction " denounced by the WHO and faced with the shortage of medical equipment such as masks, which since then have proved essential to fight the coronavirus, the Asturian Gonzalo Díaz and the Madrid-born Miguel Pascual detected an opportunity. While the pandemic has led to the closure of many companies, for Rypo it meant the possibility of reorienting and strengthening its business.

Once a real estate company, Rypo was reborn in the midst of the health crisis and, 80 million masks sold later, has become one of the main suppliers of medical-health material during the pandemic, outside the circuits of the large distributors in the sector, according to the company in a press release.

Since then, it has billed € 24 million; it has imported 5 million syringes and 700,000 boxes of gloves, 200,000 litres of hydrogel, to 200,000 tests rapid antigen, and has established business relationships with about 150 clients, including ministries, regional governments, municipalities, hospitals, and pharmacies throughout Spain, among other entities.

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks

It all started with a trip to Kenya, before the state of alarm, according to Gonzalo Díaz, CEO and co-founder of Rypo, in an interview.

It was late February or early March, and you were starting to see a lot of people wearing masks at airports. "We arrived in Spain from the trip 3-4 days before they decreed the state of alarm, and I already had a little fly behind my ear. This is going to get ugly, " he recalls.

At the moment when Pedro Sánchez, president of the Government, decrees the state of alarm (March 14, 2020), Gonzalo Díaz (28 years old) decides to "start the adventure" and calls co-founder Miguel Pascual (26). So they started a business with which to seek profitability, but also "be able to help people," he explains.

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks: Their contacts with China, where they worked for more than 8 years through a family business, were key to achieving significant levels of supply despite being a newly created business. In fact, most of their shipments depart from the Asian giant and arrive in Spain, although they will try to expand to other countries in Europe "between the near and medium term".

"That we could deliver all those millions of masks at a time when nobody brought anything... It was funny to me that suddenly there was news that the government had brought, what do I know, a million-odd masks; I had 6 [million] in customs that day," he compares.

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks

Another key to the success of Rypo that says Gonzalo Diaz is the rigor to certify products as sensitive as health: "we're talking about that we have supplied more than 80 million masks and defective has not left even 1%; we had to change to 10,000 or 20,000 [less than 0.03%], no more", a song by labeling, he says.

This rigor is based on a triple-filter quality: monitoring and search product made in China a team of about 20 people; another control to the output of China, both in pharmacies of customs —if this is a medical product— as in the premises of Rypo (such as the duty of every company that supplies medical supplies, made by your medical technician or pharmacist); finally, one last check by Aitex (Research Association for Textile Industry), of which they are members and the samples sent for analysis.

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks: Their first order was 50,000 FFP2 masks that they took from Shanghai to pharmacies in Madrid, Asturias and Almería in 6 days. Was it a moment of excitement, relief, satisfaction...? "I'm going to be very sincere: it was lived with a lot of fear," admits Gonzalo.

There was a lot of money at stake: in the first week they had already billed 3 million euros, the masks cost 10 or 15 times more than now and it was a context of doubts, to the point that customers had to put a guarantee that they would not back down.

"The biggest problem we had was the uncertainty that they could stop the goods when they arrived in Spain, since the first two weeks it was commented that the state was requisitioning material," he explains.

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks

"It lived... I do not know, there were many mixed feelings: satisfaction, nerves, a lot of doubt; the truth, a lot of stress, especially the first month," he recalls.

It was not the only challenge they had to overcome, nor the most difficult. "The most complicated or stressful moment in which we have seen ourselves was a weekend in which we had 4 planes; a plane was our whole, rented whole, and on top of that you had to prepay", recalls Gonzalo Díaz.

"The rest of the planes came in groupage but with high loads, more than 80 CBM (cubic meters) in each of them, "explains Gonzalo, who highlights the" uncertainty "of that time,"because what was not seen from Spain was that in China regulations changed every week."

"It was a very complicated' war ' [between Europe and China]. You produced with a label, you arrived at the Chinese customs and they told you that the label was no longer valid, " he adds.

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks

"It was very complicated because you lived in a situation of uncertainty every week. You sent a product to Chinese customs to get out, and you didn't know if it was going to happen or you were going to have to send 100 or 150 people —as we did— to re-label. Crazy, " because there could be 1,000 km between the factory and the airport, he laments.

This uncertainty affects aircraft rented for the distribution of goods. "You have the plane waiting. If the physical inspection does not pass, it will not inspect, the plane waits for time, then it will 'pyre'. The plane has to be working. What did that mean? To be able to lose all the money you had advanced: we are talking about millions of euros at that time," says Gonzalo.

He recalls one case in particular: "For a logistics company, we had 3 million euros, a month lost. A month lost! We had to invest again, buy the product, with other logistics... it could have made us lose a lot of money because the market could have gone down. They were distressing moments, really."

Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks: All those moments were overcome and moved forward, always with a view to the future and not only to make short-term profits and get out of the sector. "At no time did I want to get into business just to make money and then quit (...). I said: I think this is the opportunity to enter a business that is impossible to enter, the supply of medical consumables and other types of medical materials, " shares Gonzalo Díaz.

"If we wanted to hit the ball, so to speak, we would have stopped. We don't need to continue working right now," says the co-founder of Rypo, a company that not only focuses on masks, and products related to the pandemic, but has been focusing more on the supply of other consumables for hospital bags of blood, urine, or catheters "and another series of things that are coming soon, we are working for the future".

"We are now studying the subject of stem cells very closely. We have already made a contract with a company that manufactures this theme, and it is a very innovative product," he says. "We are going to bet on one part out there, and other parts that will already be seen. We are not going to advance everything," he jokes.

"We have to do things, we are restless asses. I love working, at least what I do. We have to look for new things, study about it, as far as our head gives us; then we also have experts in the company...", explains Gonzalo, who wink at the journalist with" another pill "of outstanding information:"Among all I hope that we will manage to position Rypo in a few years as a strong company in the medical-health and pharmaceutical sector".

# Rypo Spanish real estate company sold 80 million masks #