Fifty representatives of companies belonging to the Leading Brands of Spain Association were received by His Majesty the King of Spain on 23 March in a private audience at the Zarzuela Palace that took place after the Ordinary General Meeting was held in Madrid, in which the accounts and programme for 2009 were approved.

The audience, comprising a large number of chairmen and executives of AMRE companies, began with a brief address by its chairman José Luis Bonet, who stressed the importance of member companies in the Spanish economy. He insisted on the significance of the nation brand and briefly described some of the activities organised to promote this image by the Leading Brands of Spain Forum over its ten years of existence.

Bonet offered his “warm thanks to His Majesty for his support given to our project and the invaluable service has been giving to the country for over three decades” before distinguishing as “of the greatest importance” the support the Royal Family for the Leading Brands of Spain project “which works not only for the brands represented by it but, in short, to promote the competitiveness and international image of the Spanish economy”.

The audience was the last act on a day that began with the Ordinary General Meeting in the NH Abascal Hotel in Madrid. During the meeting, the activities programme for 2009 and the accounts of the previous financial year were approved. New memberships and withdrawals in 2008 were ratified, and the AMRE activities report was presented.