Ferrer, or how to sell fish in the meat kingdom

Two things are very difficult to find in Spain: hundred year old companies and companies that survive the fourth generation of families without suffering from ongoing succession disputes. Ferrer meets both conditions and adds another curious detail: it is specifically for sale fresh and frozen fish from Vic, the cradle of the Catalan meat industry located 70 kilometers from the coast. Their figures are important: they sell 26 million kilos of products a year, they have a turnover of 147 million euros with an EBITDA of five million and they have half a thousand employees, who do not stop praising: “We very lucky, there are people “They have retired after 40 years here.”

It all started in 1924: Julià and Manela, the great-grandmother of Juli Ferrer, the current general manager, opened a fishmonger in Vic after their marriage which quickly moved to center Carrer dels Argenters. “It was open until the early 2000s,” Ferrer recalls. “In those days the fish was not as fresh as it is today, they mostly worked with salted fish or fish “He arrived two or three times a week.” The couple started selling to local restaurants, at street fairs, and at the town market. They grew until they needed a warehouse that, with ice bars, kept the goods for a few more days. As the years went by, the business passed to his son Fèlix Ferrer and his wife Mercè i Solà, who delivered cars throughout the towns. “Our ancestors chose a product that was a risk,” said Mónica Ferrer, the director’s sister and head of marketing. hand in hand from companies such as Pescanova They invested in frozen warehouses in the seventies and thanks to the third generation, with the Julià brothers (current president and Juli’s father), Joe and Silvia, they became distributors of Frigo ice cream (a Catalan brand that ended in 1973 in the hands of consumers). Unilever). They spread like an oil spill throughout Catalonia and with Julià (father) at the helm they added products from other sectors to their products, such as vegetables, pre-cooked products or meat. They grew in storage volume (they currently manage 12,000 pallets), invested in logistics centers, offices and sales points. In 2006 they bought a distribution company called Congesol in Barcelona and four years later a warehouse in Mercabarna. In Figueres and Lleida they opened two delegations to reach the south of France and Zaragoza. In 2016 the expansion arrived to Valencia, from Paterna, to cover the entire Spanish Levante through the purchase of another distributor.

“After Valencia we had to look at Madrid,” explained the director, who together with his sister and several cousins ​​represent the latest generation of managers: “We had hosted clients on way, he encouraged us to grow in the capital. ” The city that never sleeps without opening a new restaurant is also the most difficult to trade. In 2017 They bought a stall in Mercadrid which they use as a logistics area to prepare new products. They replicated the model and bought another company, Frozen Foods Solutions in 2021.

The same account of their career does not explain, however, why they have grown. Their differentiating value, they say, is that they have their own circulation force, they measure their routes to reduce costs and buy fish from around the globe trying to eliminate intermediaries. “Not everything goes well, in the world of fish there is a lot of fraud,” says Mónica Ferrer, “we have been growing because we know how to renew ourselves and focus put on quality. We have several certificates (according to MSC and ASC sustainable fishing standards), we work with companies recognized by the EU, we have taken special care in sourcing, in maintaining the chain cold, in technology.” The planned investment for the next three years will reach 12 million.

More preparation and rearing fish

Consumers are increasingly demanding more processed fish, particularly fillets. “This summer we managed to process orders for 15,000 kilos of fish in one night to be served the next day and of these, 30% were prepared according to what they asked of us. ” They say that farmed fish are gaining weight: salmon, sea bass, sea bream, crocodile, and soon cod. “Aquaculture is necessary and will provide a solution to the lack of produce we are finding in our oceans. Wild fish, whether due to climate change or overexploitation in some areas of the world, have affected fisheries. Growth in consumption is driving the need for aquaculture.”

The crops grow and prices rise. In 2022 and part of 2023, inflation hit fishing. “Today we have partially corrected, but the bar has been raised.” On the other hand, products such as salmon, which are traded on international markets, are now at a minimum. “After many years of buying it, I still have a hard time understanding why it goes up or down sometimes,” the manager laughs.

In this slow and steady step the family has gone parallel. They have a family continuity protocol, but they don’t talk about it much. “The secret is that we are united, we spend summers together, we celebrate the holidays together, our grandparents instilled in us.” And, again, Mónica says, “it’s not just the fortune of the family, but to surround yourself with people who understand the company as their own.”