Biscuit Producer Gullón Reached a Turnover of EUR306m in 2015
Spanish biscuit producer Galletas Gullón has announced a new record: its turnover for 2015 reached EUR306.5m, almost 20 million more than the previous year, representing an increase of 7%.
This considerable growth is due to the company’s exports and commitment to innovation and R+D, with the launch of new health food products such as the Vitalday and Devoracol ranges, as the company revealed in a press release.
“The company’s international expansion and the development of new products to take care of the health of consumers are the two pillars on which the company’s future is based”, Juan Miguel Martínez Gabaldón, Galletas Gullón’s managing director, stated.
Sales outside of Spain already make up 35% of Gullón’s total turnover, with products available in over 100 countries. The European market is of the greatest importance in terms of exports (40%), followed by the United States and Canada, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, each of which represents 20% of the company’s sales.
The company’s president and main shareholder, María Teresa Rodríguez, has announced that she will continue with the company’s profit reinvestment policy, which will be allocated to increasing the production capacity of the VIDA plant and to moving forward with the development of new healthy products. This profit reinvestment business strategy has allowed Gullón to self-finance its investments and maintain constant growth with no form of debt.
Industry leaders in investments
Gullón allocates almost 2% of its turnover to the R+D+I department and is the leader in the biscuit sector in terms of investments, both planned and carried out. A few months ago, the Palencia-based company announced th
at it would invest EUR50m in the next three years to increase the number of manufacturing lines at the VIDA plant.
The data presented by the company bear witness to the constant growth of the Gullón brand, which leads the health food biscuit category with a 25% market share, and represents 8.2% of the entire Spanish biscuit sector, according to economic data. Furthermore, the Gullón brand gained its highest ever level of market share in 2015, with a 0.8% increase, according to the latest figures from the consulting firm IRI.
The record sales achieved by Gullón are particularly outstanding given current trends in the biscuit industry in Spain, which has suffered from a standstill in consumption since 2014, with a 1% decrease in biscuit sales during the first part of 2015, according to IRI data.
Finally, Gullón has renewed its commitment to generating employment in the region. The company currently has 1,250 workers and hopes to employ 150 more in the next three years, as the new production lines planned for VIDA are brought into operation. The large majority of workers are from the Aguilar region, from the north of Palencia and from Cantabria, and the company is the region’s main economic driving force.