Employees in the quality control of Carpisa hamburgers.Goyo Conde
Carpisa Foods has been building its small meat empire hamburger by hamburger for 35 years, its flagship product. This family business, specialized in beef and which sells in more than 25 countries, has 15 in the hands of the second generation, which has multiplied its inherited turnover by five, reaching 110 million euros in 2019. At the moment The company is immersed in an investment plan of 10 million and, despite the impact of the covid-19 in the activity and in the accounts of last year, it expects to grow at double digits annually and aspires to double its turnover in five years.
On the other side of the screen, Jorge Castelló and Carlos Quintas, co-directors general, say that their respective parents met in college while they were studying that had nothing to do with the sector.
After several years of separate work experience in their fields, they decided to undertake together and opened a series of businesses including Carpisa, whose main purpose was to supply hamburgers to a famous fast food chain.
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After almost 20 years at the helm of the company, the founders wanted to take a step back and their children, who had previously been strangers to the world of meat, took the reins. In their lack of experience, they saw more of an opportunity than a drawback. “We did not come with vices from the meat sector. We provide the company with an objective, neutral vision, new blood and seriousness, ”says Castelló. "I think that has allowed us to give a new vision to a business that has always been very traditional," says Quintas.
“We had to make a serious company like the one it is now. Build and expand and attract new customers, start a commercial activity… ”, Castelló says about the landing. For years, the company grew in parallel with its largest customer, and although the relationship continues today, the co-directors knew it was better not to depend on a single buyer. “Our main bet was a commercial director, which was a very long selection process, and it helped us to diversify our client portfolio. That was, let's say, the first or one of the factors that have helped us to grow, ”he says.
In the company's factory, in the Madrid municipality of Griñón, to which they moved in 1999 from Alcorcón and which occupies around 12,000 square meters, they debone more than 120 tons of meat and produce more than a million hamburgers a day. The animals come from approved slaughterhouses in Spain and some in Europe, and their products are sold in countries on the continent, with France and Portugal being the main ones in the EU, Africa and Asia. In their catalog they also have different cuts of beef, meatballs, minced meat, kebab meat and halal, which comes from animals slaughtered according to the rites prescribed in the Koran.
Its main sales channel is from business to business. "We are focused on
foodservice
and hospitality, which is what has made us grow and where we have large customers throughout Europe," Castelló says. However, in 2016 they also opened to
retail
with the Brooklyn Town brand, of whose latest proposal, a hamburger available in three varieties and ready to eat after a microwave hit, they have sold more than a million units since last year. The stoppage of bars and restaurants caused by covid-19 made them accelerate their investments focused on this channel to reach the final consumer faster.
The health crisis that seriously injured the hospitality industry resulted in a 30% drop in the company's revenues in 2020, but they say they have quickly overcome. "At this time, all the activity in terms of turnover would be recovering, to return again to the optimal figures that were in 2019 and, obviously, with profitability," says Castelló. Although they do not disclose the amount of the benefits, they affirm that Carpisa Foods is a solvent company and that they reinvest everything they earn to continue growing.
“The Spanish public is eminently meaty. People like meat and we think that will not change ”, says Quintas about the demand for vegetable products, which they still consider to be less and which covers their Vegreen brand. However, he says, it is more demanding and pays attention to animal welfare, sustainability, that the meat is local, has a cleaner label, with fewer preservatives, and so on. "And of course, satisfying all those facets of a consumer that is much more sophisticated than 20 years ago ... is increasingly complicated."
To face this and other challenges and meet their growth objectives, they are immersed in the investment plan that they launched two years ago, with a special focus on the end consumer. "We are diversifying in products, in channels and now in frozen and fresh", Castelló says, explaining that the new line of fresh products is intended for both the retail and hospitality sectors. In addition, they have added a branch for the wholesale self-service, Carpisa Professional Solutions, and after the summer they will expand their offer of already cooked products. Part of these funds is also used in productive improvements to be able to respond to new customer demands with competitive prices.
Its longer-term sights are set on expanding the market share in both beef cutting and hamburgers for the Horeca channel (hotels, restaurants and cafeterias) and on continuing to introduce references in the line dedicated to the end customer. "In the international channel we want to continue increasing in the countries where we are and enter new ones, such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark, Canada, Hong Kong and the Philippines", he adds.
Although they assure that Carpisa Foods will continue to be a family business, a condition of which they are proud, there will not be a third generation to take over. "Our idea is that the professionalization of a company has to go through professional management in every way," says Quintas. “The logical thing would be that the succession of Jorge and me was not a member of the family. In fact, there is no member of the family that works in Carpisa except us ”.