Marco Galinha -the Portuguese entrepreneur who wanted to be simply “the best”

Marco Galinha is one of Portugal’s most well-known and admired self-made serial entrepreneurs. At a Lisbon lunch organised by the International Club of Portugal (ICPT) on Tuesday (May 27) he revealed his incredible and often surprising story, and gave a glimpse into the mind of a man who has single-handedly created Grupo Bel and turned it into an empire with scores of companies across many sectors employing 3,500.

Text: Chris Graeme; Photos: Fernando Bento (ICPT)

When he was 18, Portuguese entrepreneur and founder of Grupo Bel, Marco Galinha, had an ambition to be the best he could be and thought he would dedicate himself to championship biking, more specifically All Terrain Biking (ATB) because that was what he wanted at the time and he wanted to become the best.

The compulsive serial entrepreneur wondered: “how can I achieve it?”. He studied the world champions in the sport and their habits, and discovered that whether a sportsman or an entrepreneur one can observe a lot from their career paths and what they did to get to the top.

After 12 months from starting to train as a competition cyclist he met and chatted to the champion cyclist Marco Marchetti in the Algarve and “something opened my eyes”.

“When I went to speak to him I felt a huge emptiness and thought how is it possible that this lad is the world champion. I recalled an English expression ‘brains not brawn’, an extremely important expression.

Recalling being with and speaking to the members of the ATB heroes of the national selection and wanting to be World Champion in ATB – there were the Atlanta Olympic Games coming up in 1996 – he thought: “That’s what I want – to be the world champion”.

“My colleagues from the selection said “Look, Marco, we don’t stand a fat cat’s chance in hell!” But we ended up in the final. So, you should never allow yourself, whether in sport or business, to be contaminated by negative naysayers.

A sense of responsibility

Despite this, Marco decided at 18 to give up the sport. “It was a difficult year. I had lost my father and had to pay for my studies myself. It was a very difficult year for Portugal which was in the midst of a banking crisis and recession when people thought “the world was about to end”. He started off in computing and managed to get some clients.

And such crises, he says, repeat throughout life, like Covid-19, but being Portuguese and understanding Portugal’s past (he has a huge silver caravel in his office in a reference to his admiration for the Discoverers), he felt a sense of ambition and responsibility.

“We shouldn’t always be talking about our past, but as a people we have a huge responsibility in the world. We’re not just any people and the Portuguese passport for me is one of the most important in the world.

“I have a huge sense of gratitude to society for many reasons but being Portuguese is an enormous advantage”, he reflects.

Never listen to naysayers

Building a group like Grupo Bel was, he says, “so difficult, but so difficult, but it was possible”. It was only possible one way: by “never letting those negative and pessimistic voices dissuade me”.

“Today, we do unique things because this is the blood that we’ve got in our veins”, he said referring to the success Grupo Bel has had across various sectors, and yet he still believes Grupo Bel is “at the initial phases with a long way to go” even though it has 89 companies and 3,500 employees.

Marco believes having one company or scores of companies requires the same amount of work. It’s an idea I’ve heard from my own sister who had five children and ran the social department of a borough council. She used to say when I asked her “how do you do it all?” that it was a question of discipline, organisation, passion, dedication and leaning how to take responsibility but delegate when necessary.

“It’s the same work organising a lot of companies as it is to organise a few, but nevertheless I feel a coward when I read the stories of the Battle of the Nile or the navigators with their astrolabes who headed out without knowing where they were headed in those caravels without any conditions at all but we did it, and that’s our spirit”, says Marco.

“I think today, whether in politics or business, one must have a duty because this country can be a focus for peace, and this is very important for our entrepreneurs because Portugal today can have relations with various countries in the world, without conflicts or problems. But it’s important to know the blood in our veins, who we are and where we’ve come from, and never be ashamed of our past,” he ponders.

Forays into media

Marco Galinha started in this vein by deciding to buy the media company Global Media “for a song” in order to do something to help the country.

His first foray into media came with the purchase of business daily Jornal Económico (since sold). The newspaper was practically bankrupt at the time. He then started to look at the Portuguese media and TV group Media Capital, but that would eventually end up in the hands of another major equally famous Portuguese entrepreneur, Mário Ferreira.

And he is a great defender of journalism and journalists, and thinks they should be wholly independent when it comes to their work, beyond the political affiliations and interference that some media groups suffer from.

“Global Media was the biggest sacrifice I’ve made to date, full of storms, so in the spirit of the navigators we took over that ‘aircraft carrier’ that is Diário de Notícias which had been in difficulty” and restructured it.

“I believe in the power of the media, and we have always fought for its independence. They say the media is the fourth estate in democracy. I think it’s the first estate, and we have to have good journalists and independent journalism, and Portugal is very good in this respect. This is our essence, this is what I do in my companies, and it’s a constant battle to grow each and every step, despite the battles that are part and parcel of this”, he affirms.

“What I’d like share to you whether CEOs, bank administrators, lawyers or MPs, is that you should have dignity. Another thing is that there are those who think Grupo Bel has assets of around €500 million, a debt of several millions, but we have assets of €50 million, we’re a fairly solid and stable group with close to €200 million in sales. I feel a sense of responsibility and that has nothing to do with having money in the bank, because what we do has an impact on society because if I can improve Portugal 00,1% then my life’s mission is better and I want to bring dignity to journalism,” he stressed.

Journalism and AI

And as for Artificial Intelligence, Marco Galinha says that AI is not a problem in itself; the problem lies in who controls the algorithms.

“I don’t believe that AI will replace journalists. AI does not have a conscience or intuition. It can help to free up a journalist’s time. When I ask AI something, I always ask if it is certain because it constantly corrects itself. I think it is helpful to help us, but we shouldn’t become dependent on it or it will replace doctors and nurses.

“But it will be a revolution like we’ve never seen before, not even the Industrial Revolution, that’s what I think will happen.”

Not without controversy

Like any successful entrepreneur who creates a business empire Marco Galinha has not been immune to controversy and was accused to paying an active minister to write for his newspaper empire which under Portuguese law is considered a conflict of interest.

“There had been a minister who was writing for the newspaper and getting money for it. I had gone to the US to make an acquisition and was informed that I could be detained at the airport because you can’t pay acting politicians in Portugal and Europe,” he recalls.

He also alluded to criticisms from the far-left because of family business links to the Russian businessman Markos Leivikov to whose daughter Alina Leivikova he is married, and his father-in-law’s links to a Russian oligarch. (Alina was at the ICPT lunch and Essential Business had the opportunity to chat with her about Russian history and the War in Ukraine in the foyer afterwards).

It was alleged Markos Leivikov bankrolled Vladimir Putin’s party United Russia. But this is not the scope of this article and there are several published sources online, albeit very left-wing ones, that discuss these links in more detail for those who care to look.

On Novobanco

Marco Galinha expressed his misgivings over a possible sale of Portugal’s bank Novobanco to a Spanish banking group such as CaixaBank which is currently looking into the viability of a possible acquisition.

The Grupo Bel founder on the one hand said that an eventual sale to a Spanish bank would bring clear advantages to Spanish companies operating in Portugal, but on the other hand would be “dramatic for Portuguese companies”.

Instead, the entrepreneur argued that the bank should remain in Portuguese hands. Marco Galinha is of the opinion that Spanish banks gaining a further market share in Portugal’s banking sector (it already holds around 30%) would only give further leverage to Spanish groups whose companies were directly competing with hundreds of Portuguese SMEs across a wide range of sectors.

“I like the Spanish, we’re brothers after all, but liking them is one thing, being naive is another. If Novobanco ends up in Spanish hands I and hundreds of other entrepreneurs can start now to think about selling our companies because we know what’s around the corner”, he said.

Currently, the US equities fund management company Lone Star, which holds a 75% share in Novobanco is looking at either selling part or all of its share in the bank or floating part or all of the institution on the Lisbon Euronext stock market through an IPO.

The Spanish banks CaixaBank (which owns BPI in Portugal) and Abanca are viewed as possible interested parties in buying the bank that was created from the ashes of failed bank Banco Espírito Santo in 2014.

National banks such as State-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos (CGD) and Millennium bcp have also been mooted as contenders, although the CEO of CGD, Paulo Macedo has doubted if the EU’s competition authority would allow an acquisition and in any case has viewed the prospect as “very complicated” to achieve. Novobanco is Portugal’s third largest high street clearing bank after Spain’s Santander and BCP.

Marco Galinha informed that Groupo Bel only had 3% of its credit in Spanish banks, adding that Spanish companies were strongly supported by their banks in their internationalisation ambitions. “The Spanish are very good at this”, he added. Portuguese “companies in succession processes, for example, would be easy targets”, he opined.

About Marco Galinha and Grupo Bel

Specialised in digital marketing, Marco Galinha is both the executive chairman and CEO of the Grupo Bel which he founded in 2001 at the age of 20. Today, it controls or has a stake in some 90 companies.

At that time it was called Bel Network Solutions and was originally dedicated to software development and computer solutions, computer equipment sales and services provision.

By 2004 he founded Bel Distribution SA whose aim was to acquire small companies in commerce and distribution in central Portugal as well as entering the vending machines sector. It also expanded to the food and beverage sector.

In 2007, the group acquired the vending assets of Miranda Unipessoal in Santarém and in the following year he founded DLP Portugal SA to expand the import and export of food and beverages while the group acquired the vending assets of Carregado.

In 2010, the group acquired Leirivending – Comércio, Distribuição e Vending S.A, a company with 14 years of history in the vending market of coffee, beverages and snacks operating on the HORECA channel.

In 2013, the group acquired Beiradis, the biggest vending machine distributor in Coimbra and the following year the company went into real estate with the acquisition of Urbilink – Mediação Imobiliária, Lda, a real estate company, and also launched the group’s first own brand: Coffee Bel.

In 2015, the group acquired Futurete-Indústria de Máquinas de Café, Lda, a producer of handmade coffee machines and grinders.

Bel Network Solutions was renamed Grupo BEL S.A., also incorporating the other companies headquartered in Carnaxide near Lisbon where it established an Innovation Center – a research and innovation hub dedicated to the technological development of new projects associated with the Group’s products.

In 2016, the Group launches Amicis Gin brand, a premium gin brand produced in the centre of the country and in the following year acquired the companies SDT- Sociedade de Distribuição, Lda in the Lisbon area, and STR- Sociedade de Distribuição Lda, in the Ribatejo area.

In 2018 the group became a reference shareholder of the Group Active Space Techologies, S.A.. and then branched out into media by acquiring a percentage of Megafin – Sociedade Editora, S.A. owner of Jornal Económico.

In the same year, with a focus on the Recovery and Preservation of National Assets and Social Responsibility, Grupo BEL also becomes a shareholder of Fábrica das Fitas.

In 2019, the group acquired Metalúrgica Luso-Italiana S.A., holder of a Portuguese brand of taps – Zenite. It had been owned by António Saraiva, a former president of the Portuguese Industrial Confederation – CIP, himself a self-made man who started out as an apprentice metalworker and ended up being the voice of Portuguese business and industry.

This acquisition was the result of Grupo’s BEL strategy to recover and develop manufacturing businesses in Portugal. Also in 2019, the Group acquired Augusto Duarte Reis, S.A., a company dedicated to the distribution, promotion and vending of Food & Beverages. That year Grupo BEL celebrated its 18th anniversary.

In 2020, the group acquired the company Aximage- Comunicação e Imagem, Lda, specialised in opinion polls.

The Group’s real estate assets were strengthened by the acquisition of Grupo Flugraph-SPGS, S.A., which holds stakes in real estate and hotel companies, such as: Estalagem do Farol, S.A., Sociedade Agro-turística da Herdade do Rio Mourinho, S.A. and Propriurbe– Propriedades e Urbanizações, S.A. It is here that Marco Galinha’s business links with the controversial Russian businessman Markos Leivikov came in.

That same year, Grupo BEL R&D was founded, a company that promotes research and development within the Group. Grupo BEL acquired a financial stake in Global Notícias – Media Group, S.A., one of the largest Media groups in Portugal with a recognised presence in Press, Magazines, Radio, Sports News, Business, Health, and others. It owns Diário de Notícias – one of the oldest newspapers in Portugal founded in the 19th century.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2021, the company founded Bel e-Power, Lda, a company dedicated to the commercialisation and implementation of solutions for the production, management and consumption of renewable energy in the latest generation electric mobility sector in Portugal.

In 2021, through Grupo BEL R&D, it acquired a majority position in Inovaworks II, Command and Control, S.A. a software company for operations management, monitoring and surveillance, and geospatial intelligence analysis. Also in the same year, Grupo BEL became a shareholder of VASP – Distribuidora de Publicações, S.A. the leading press distribution company in Portugal.

In 2022, The group acquired a percentage in the Portuguese news agency Agência Lusa – Agência de Notícias de Portugal, S.A., becoming a reference shareholder of the largest producer and distributor of news about Portugal and the world, in the Portuguese Language. In March 2022, it sold its shareholding in Megafin – Sociedade Editora, S.A., the owner of Jornal Económico.

In 2023, Grupo BEL acquired the exclusive control of Amaral & Filhos Distribuição S.A., a company involved in the distribution and wholesale (cash and carry) of beverages, food products, hygiene, and cleaning products.

The acquisition of this business allowed Grupo BEL to expand its operations into the food and agricultural sector.

Grupo BEL also strengthened its innovation sector by acquiring of Comsoftweb, Sistemas Informáticos, Lda.

At the end of 2023, Grupo BEL sold its majority share capital of its subsidiary Páginas Civilizadas, Lda, which holds a majority position in Global Notícias – Media Group, S.A.

With this operation, the management of the Global Media Group (GMG) was taken over by a new executive board, with Marco Galinha, founder, and CEO of Grupo BEL stepping down as Chairman of its Executive Committee.

In 2024, the group took a majority control of VASP which bolstered the group’s commitment to the distribution of press and books in Portugal, aligning with its reorganisation strategy and focus on sectors where it can generate greater impact and operational excellence.

VASP’s acquisition by Grupo BEL consolidated and reinforced its presence in all aspects of the Logistics sector.

Also in 2024, Grupo BEL sold its stake in the Lusa agency to the State. This decision was part of a broader reorganisation strategy which included reducing its direct presence in the communications area.

At the same time, Grupo BEL established a strategic partnership between Global Media Group and Notícias Ilimitadas, covering nine editorial brands, with the aim of promoting and reinforcing the sustainability of its historical brands through solid partnerships and strategic synergies.

In 2025 Groupo Bel announced that it had purchased the cash & carry company Central Cash.

The operation through Vales e Cordilheiras, Unipessoal, gave Grupo Bel the “exclusive control” of Central Cash, a set of assets belonging to Palmelalimentar – Armazenistas de Produtos Alimentares, “which are used to develop its distribution and wholesale trade of food, hygiene and cleaning products”.

Central Cash has been operating in Portugal for more than four decades and claims to be an “authentic and unique wholesale shopping center” with a commercial area of 7,000 square meters located in the municipality of Palmela.

A biking fan with ambition

Apart from his business activities, Marco Galinha is still a keen practitioner in all-terrain biking winning the title of National Champion of ATB in 1995.

Born in 1977, as the seventh of eight children, the entrepreneur from Rio Maior, who admits he was “very shy” as a kid, had a love of bicycles from an early age. In fact his first business deal was as a teenager when he convinced a friend to buy a bicycle that he had restored and painted.

“I was always a youth with an appetite to win but this ended up with me getting some good hidings at home since I had six bothers and sisters which made things complicated”, he said, adding “when we’re a little bit outside of the mould losing is difficult.”

Marco Galinha said he also broke the mould at school and university. “Today we call such kids hyperactive but my advice to parents as a father and grandfather is to keep calm and have a lot of patience with your kids and grandkids because it can be a sign of intelligence and drive”, he reflects.

“We often want to clip their wings and control them, but this could actually divert them from a promising career, and our system of education does not, in my opinion, prepare them for success, but more for failure because its easier to make cookie-cutter people.

Striving for the top is more difficult. Its much easier to be average or good but excellent is only within the reach of some. it’s a work that takes continuous effort and dedication, and today I recognise entrepreneurs and CEOs for whom I have a great admiration and sense of gratitude.”