Testimonials

“In the last 18 years, the world has seen a chain of changes. Although they have less time to spend on purchasing goods and services, consumers have become more demanding and conscientious, reinforcing their choice for customisable and sustainable products with near-immediate availability.

This change in consumption patterns has resulted in the design of new products and distribution channels, the very relationship between the business world and society, to which some companies have responded better than others.

The constant search for diversified solutions for its clients based on an open and sustainable relationship with its business partners are hallmarks of the way Grupo BEL does things.

Also for that congratulations Grupo BEL!”

“Being the first Grupo BEL’s contributor and, of course, the oldest, I was able to learn from all those who came together. In this Group we are free to come up with ideas, what makes us grow, and which teaches us how to feel the Group as ours, making it easier for us to project a secure future for our families.

The values are the same: respect for each other as different as we are; freedom of speech, good or bad; honesty always; and always, work, yes… a lot! But with pleasure, just like the one when we sacrifice ourselves for our children, we may later be proud of the certainty that we did our best.

Grupo BEL is a group of people, including Marco – the thinker – who work daily to ensure a better future. Grupo BEL is all of us and we will receive the next employee as if it is the first.”

Director of SDT – Distribuição, S.A. (Chamusca’s pole)

“I joined Grupo BEL in 2009 and in the blink of an eye, ten years have passed! Now that the company has reached full age, I cannot help but recall its modest and familiar origin, with a team that could be counted on the fingers of one hand. With hard work, dedication, motivation and commitment, Grupo BEL has evolved and adapted to changing times and needs. It is a pride to be part of this family, to see it and to help it to grow and to go further and further.

I take this opportunity to thank all the people who have accompanied me in one way or another on this journey, a special thanks to Marco for the opportunity, the confidence vote, and above all for being an example of leadership for all of us.

Thank you.”

Salesman of the company Bel Distribuição, S.A.

“It has been a privilege to accompany Grupo BEL’s growth over the last 10 years. It is with esteem, admiration and pride that I go working every day. With the certainty that I will enter my second home, wheree dreams happen, challenges emerge and a family is formed.”

“With great honour that I translate into words the pride in being able to follow Grupo BEL’s development over the last 9 years.

The ability to grow in various sectors without losing focus on distribution is a constant challenge. The way the Group connects the members of its team motivating them is undoubtedly one of the secrets of such a remarkable evolution along with the unmatched charisma of its CEO.

A word of thanks to Marco Galinha for the opportunity to be part of this project and best wishes for personal and professional success.”

Commercial Director of the company Bel Distribuição, S.A.

“Grupo BEL took its first steps and at age 18 has reached full age. It had moments of pure joy for its achievements, for others not so much, but it is part of the life path of any company.

It is the merit of Marco Galinha and all the team that has been accompanying him.

May many 18 years come.

“Success is the sum of all those little daily efforts.” – Robert Collier, author.

A good there!”

Statutory Auditor, MC Godinho & Associados SROC, Lda

“Throughout these 18 years, we have seen the evolution of Grupo BEL with great optimism, it is for us, without a doubt, a model to follow.

We believed in its potential and success early on and easily identified creativity and differentiation in everything its different companies do.

The professionalism with which the companies face each challenge and goal is mirrored in their success.

I am very proud of our partnership and what we have developed and created over the years, and I hope that this partnership will last for many, many years.

Congratulations!”

National Key Account Manager, Imperial Tobacco Portugal, Lda

“The successful way in which Grupo BEL has developed itself over the past 18 years is both an example and a stimulus for the Portuguese people. It is an example because this Group has managed to reconcile the purpose of growing and justifying the capital invested with the appreciation of all those who work in it. But it is also a stimulus because the logical and efficient way in which Grupo BEL grew and developed itself shows that any person can create and go forward with her/his project.

Eighteen years ago Marco Belo Galinha only had the education his family had given him, and a great desire to work, making him understand that it was worthwhile to dedicate himself intensely to developing his project. He was able to choose an economic activity that suited his characteristics. It is a way of acting that any of us can adopt if we look closely at what we know and what we like to do. We all have the skills that can be harnessed and implemented in the development of an initiative or a company for the benefit of ourselves and the community in which we operate. It is mainly through the development of a personal project, useful and suitable for our country, that we can all fully realize ourselves. In the case of Grupo BEL, this objective has been fully achieved: the Group has been keeping an important sector of economic activity in national hands and enabling the creation of hundreds of jobs.

In this way, we can only hope that Grupo BEL will continue to develop itself, maintaining the orientation of providing an important service to Portugal, respecting and valuing all its employees, and showing to all Portuguese people that it is possible to create wealth, reconciling each one’s interests with the goals of our country.”

Administrator of El Corte Inglés- Grandes Armazéns, S.A.

“Vision, Ambition and Will are, in my opinion, the values that over these 18 years have guided Grupo BEL.

It was based on these and other values that Marco Galinha built Grupo BEL, taking it to a dimension that makes it one of the largest Business Groups in our country: a solid Group with a successful track record. With growth, organisation, feeling, dreams come true. Allied to his desire, Grupo BEL has a human strength that daily puts all these values into practice: dedication, teamwork, overcoming, for the love of the game, wanting to be better, win!

In the last six years, I have worked with Grupo BEL, I grew up as a professional and a human being. Being part of and continuing to be part of Grupo BEL’s growth is both a pride and a challenge. A pride, because at all times we feel part of this evolution and, at the same time, it is personal growth; a challenge, because we have a clear notion that Grupo BEL is not a finished project, as it is in continuous and clear expansion. We are currently more than twice the companies, the employees, owning a solidity that allows us to face the future with the same will and determination.

The Group’s growth into adulthood that we now celebrate was not without obstacles that we had to overcome. However, the recognition that we are stronger today and able to overcome difficulties is the rewarding result of this journey.

For all that, it is a pleasure to be able to work in this Group and belong to this large family that is Grupo BEL.

Congratulation Marco. Congratulations Grupo BEL!”

Administrator of Grupo BEL S.A.

“It has been a privilege for me as a professional to follow the evolution of Grupo BEL to this day.

The hard and persistent work has generated, over these years, a noticeable growth of the business that started as Tabaqueira Bel, a few years ago.

It is undoubtedly an example to follow as a structured business model, designed and executed.

JTI welcomes the tremendous success of its partner for the past, present and surely future success.

On behalf of JTI and in my name, I would like to thank Grupo BEL and all its employees, for their effort, dedication and collaboration in business development.

It is in our DNA to create value for our partners and to work as one team. This is the key to success.

That is why JTI has walked hand in hand with Grupo BEL for the past 18 years and desires to continue to do so.”

National Key Account Manager, Japan Tobacco International

“I could define Grupo BEL by its entrepreneurship, highlight its growth, its organisation or its professionalism. I could also define Grupo BEL as a family where bonds are created and the values of humanism are strengthened. I could mention all its achievements and the hours of the days that realised them, the resilience in the search for the paths to follow and the constant overcoming that these paths evoke. And in all these mentions, it would reflect a portrait of what the Group is today.

But on this remarkable anniversary, there is something indelible about the history of the Group and all those who live it intensely: the ability to dream tied with the determination to pour into reality what defies mere probability.

This mark, which is both a watermark and a contrast one, is both grandiose and unusual. Grandiose, when one desires that this dream is also the wish to fulfil it; unusual because in the perpetual movement that moment is concealed when the dream fills with breath with each new awakening.

If Grupo BEL is born out of a dream and the desire to make it come true, it reflects the best image of those who dared to create it. Congratulations Marco for this tremendous ability to dream and for the strength of never refusing to give life contours that many would not dare to consider.

Today, on its 18th anniversary, Grupo BEL’s hourglass of time unveils its adulthood in its growth, and each grain of sand represents a resilient desire to mark time with the seal of perpetuity.

Grupo BEL is, therefore, more than all the words that can define it, more than any description that wishes to fulfil it. It is, and will be, the Group of those who dream, those who dare, those who live it and feel it in the throb of an encouraging determination, sometimes “more than what human strength promised”.

Grupo BEL, beyond the existence reported by the financial library of numbers and reports, lives in the added value that each person brings to it with the confidence that it is always worthwhile, because the Group is not only a company, but people with soul, whom, as in Pessoa, is certainly not small.

Congratulations to Marco, congratulations to the Group, congratulations to those who live and feel what Grupo BEL means and represents.”

Administrator of Grupo BEL, S.A.

“Grupo BEL is 18 years old. The celebration of this date represents a victory of a united, dreamy, hard-working team with a desire to make a difference in an increasingly volatile world where the future is always unknown.

Grupo BEL is special. I deeply believe that our differentiation lies in people who along with their competence and vision always look to the Group with the same respect and responsibility as if it belonged to each one of us. This demand for a meaning is projected in the uncompromising defence of its fundamental values.

Our CEO Marco Galinha is the embodiment of Grupo BEL’s values. A singular person who encourages us daily to pursue the path of excellence and teaches us at all times that there is nothing stronger than the power of our dreams.

What pride to be part of this team from the first day Grupo BEL started working in Carnaxide, our headquarters! Not all companies give us the freedom to create, to do differently, even knowing that the road will have difficulties to overcome and requirements to meet.

Thank you Marco. Thank you Team of Grupo BEL.

Congratulations!”

Project Manager, Grupo BEL S.A.

“Grupo BEL is 18 years old. In comparison with the human being, this is the age of adulthood. It’s the age to take on more and greater responsibilities.

In a world that has undergone so many radical changes in recent decades, living and growing for 18 years with wealth and business vitality is a very important milestone. Few economic groups have survived, and even fewer have sustained growth like the one verified in Grupo BEL.

Grupo BEL’s mission is to “create value companies with values” of which I am a witness! And the set of values that guide Grupo BEL are significant, of which I highlight among others: integrity and honesty; excellence and trust; transparency and accuracy; ethics and responsibility; cooperation and sharing.

As for “safety,” the truth is that we live in a world of increasing risks. No workplace – be it an office, a warehouse, a factory, a store, or even a distribution vehicle – is immune to these risks. Risks threaten not only the company’s resources but also the safety of workers and their morale. However, as we have noticed, it is possible to mitigate them by identifying threats, reducing vulnerabilities and controlling the effects and consequences of assaults.

The evolution of security at Grupo BEL has been significant and the results highly positive, mainly due to everyone’s participation and involvement. However, there is still much to be done, and one cannot let the guard down. Today we are better than yesterday, and we all want to be even better tomorrow.

Safety is a responsibility of everyone, at all levels, everywhere, and at all times. Safety begins in each of us. By adopting a precautionary attitude we can effectively minimize the risks, thus contributing to the safety of the company and its employees, and the increase of the Group’s productivity.

Many congratulations to Grupo BEL, its CEO, and all those who have been part of this successful project for 18 years.”

“When I was asked to write a few words about Grupo BEL for its 18th birthday, I thought I would not have much to say as I have only been working for this group for two years. However, it was two years of intense experience and intense learning.

As a child of the “new Millennium,” this group took its growth steps based on technological and environmental concerns, guided by a new way of looking to the future and understanding the new paths to build a juster and socially responsible society.

As a teenager, this group grew up with the will proper to its age without fear of risking, without being stuck in the format of the past, showing that one can build value in Portugal in Portuguese.

The Group reaches 18 years old, strong and muscular, with an adult maturity that allows it not to lower its arms, but to act with caution with every step it takes.

It faces the challenges of those who have grown up fast, namely the construction of a more solid structure, based on the integration of people and methods of various companies, a challenge that I foresee with determination.

As a result of its unquestionable leader Marco Galinha and the base he built, this group is today a national reference and pride for all who are part of it.

Congratulations to the staff and friends who contributed to this success.
Congratulations Marco Galinha.
Congratulations Grupo BEL.”

Administrator of Grupo Bel, S.A.

“Throughout our existence, there are moments of joy and disenchantment. At Active Space Technologies it has been the same for over a decade. What does not destroy us makes us stronger and more resilient in times of uncertainty. More important than the adversity of events, it is the way we respond that counts and makes a difference. The measure of our intelligence is in the ability to change and adjust to new challenges.

In everything we do, and whenever possible, we should apply the scientific method to find viable answers. In life, there are always those who are part of either the dilemma or the solution. Some people find problems at every opportunity, and others glimpse opportunities at each problem. Choosing well is almost always a matter of attitude towards circumstances. If one does things always in the same way, one cannot expect to yield different results.

We don’t need to work more; we need to work better and be demanding and rigorous in everything we do. Experience is the name we give to our mistakes, but only those who learn from them become truly experienced. Professionalism has a name: professionalism. At the same time, it is necessary to ensure decent ethical values, to demonstrate loyalty to shareholders, management, employees, suppliers and customers. It should be noticed, however, that this is a two-way road. Together we want and we will do what has not yet been done. We want and we will achieve the goals that we set for ourselves. We may, and sometimes must disagree, but it is mandatory to be just and fair to all. It is crucial to be factual and to distinguish the act and the person. More than asking what the company can do for us now is the time to ask ourselves what we can do for the company to flourish.

Historically the greatest advances come at times of contrariety rather than comfort because adversity reveals geniuses while passivity hides them. What distinguishes the great civilisations, institutions and people from others is the surrender, the will to overcome barriers, to look at infinity and, as illogical as it may seem, to try to overcome it. Only in this way can you always reach higher, towards the stars.

May Grupo BEL’s participation in Active Space Technologies’ share capital be the compass that helps us improve because in every crisis there is an opportunity for those who can wisely identify and grasp it. Let’s not tell colleagues our dreams. Rather we will boldly materialize them to achieve success individually and collectively.

Per aspera ad astra!”

“Grupo BEL reached adulthood, after passing through childhood and adolescence, and has now greater responsibility.

The journey is not easy, but with everyone’s help we will take the Group on the right track, and the goals will be achieved.

We all have to help the helmsman get the boat to a good harbour.

Let’s go ahead.”

Director of the company Augusto Duarte Reis, S.A.