Mr. Demetrio Carceller Arce, presented with the Eduardo Barrachina Golden Award 2026

The Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK has presented its Eduardo Barrachina Golden Award 2026 to Damm, an international brewing group. The award was received by Mr. Demetrio Carceller Arce, Executive Chairman of Damm, during a reception held at the Residence of the Spanish Ambassador in London.

Founded in 1876, Damm has grown from a local Mediterranean brewery into one of Spain’s most recognised international beverage groups. Its flagship brand, Estrella Damm, has become synonymous with Mediterranean culture and gastronomy, achieving strong growth across global markets and a particularly prominent presence within the UK hospitality sector. Today, the United Kingdom is one of Damm’s most important markets outside Spain, accounting for a significant share of its international business.

A key milestone in Damm’s UK journey has been a recent £70 million strategic investment to modernise the company’s Eagle Brewery in Bedford. Acquired in 2022, the brewery is now a state-of-the-art production facility, with significantly increased capacity, reinforcing Damm’s long-term commitment to the UK as one of the company’s core international markets. The investment has also helped to drive local economic growth, creating 300% more new jobs since 2022, and key sustainability advances through reduced transport emissions and more efficient production processes.

The Eduardo Barrachina Golden Award remains one of the Chamber’s flagship corporate events, recognising the outstanding achievements of a Spanish company operating in the UK market, with previous winners including FCC (2025), Indra (2024), RIU Hotels (2023) and Navantia (2022).

H.E. the Ambassador of Spain to the United Kingdom, Mrs. Emma Aparici Vázquez de Parga, hosted the event at her residence in London and gave the institutional welcome, before congratulating Damm on its achievement.

“One hundred and fifty years later, in this very year of 2026 that we are now bidding farewell to, Damm marks that anniversary as one of Spain’s most recognised brands worldwide, present in more than one hundred and thirty countries and true, generation after generation, to the values of quality and authenticity that shaped its beginnings.”

“This award carries the name of a man who devoted a great part of his life to building bridges between Spain and the United Kingdom: Eduardo Barrachina, who chaired this Chamber for nearly seven years, and whom many of you knew, admired and held dear. His dedication, his warmth and his belief in the strength of the bilateral relationship remain present every time this Chamber gathers to honour those who, like him, choose to build bridges rather than walls. Tonight is for him.”

Guests were then welcomed on behalf of the Spanish Chamber by Mr. Juan Carlos Machuca, President of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in the UK. Mr. Machuca addressed the attendees with warm words of welcome and emphasised the importance of the award and Damm’s commitment to the UK market, stating:

“Damm has become a truly international company that continues not only to grow, but also to remain deeply committed to people and to society — what Mr. Demetrio Carceller describes as ‘practical humanism’. ”

“I would also like to highlight that Damm’s decision to establish one of its operations in Bedford, an area beyond Greater London is making a valuable contribution to the local economy, helping to revitalise the area and create new employment opportunities.”

Mr. Machuca then invited Mr. Demetrio Carceller Arce to collect the award. A distinguished leader in the international business community, Mr. Demetrio Carceller Arce’s attendance highlighted the prestige of the award and Damm’s significant role in the UK market. Upon receiving it, Mr. Carceller Arce stated:

“Our greatest achievement in the United Kingdom is the trust we have earned from consumers, distributors, publicans, customers, and from all those who have chosen to share this journey with us. That is why we acquired Eagle Brewery in Bedford, to brew here, invest here and create jobs here, a country in which we wanted to invest, grow and build a long-term future.”

“With regards to the recent acquisition of the quintessentially British brand, Old Speckled Hen, we believe that the more global a company becomes, the greater its responsibility to protect what makes each place unique. Preserving a brand so deeply rooted in British brewing tradition is, for us, both an honour and a responsibility”.