It all started with a square cupcake. Well, in reality, the story had started two decades earlier, back in the early 1950s, with a modest bread oven in Villalonga (Valencia) opened by Antonio Juan, father of the current CEO of the company. When the competition began to tighten, his wife, Mrs. Victoria Fernández, decided that the time had come to innovate and diversify the offer with pastry products.
The business was going from strength to strength. The time has come to take risks. How about tossing some square cupcakes? Until then all cupcakes were round. Theirs – known as the ‘Glorias’, because everyone said they tasted like heaven – were a real revolution thanks to their format that was easier to sell and distribute. Such was the demand, that in the following years they had to build the Vilallonga production plant in 1969 and then the Gandía one in 1978.
Little could Victoria imagine, when she decided to promote the pastry activity, that over time the company would have a portfolio with 5 own brands and 19 commercial delegations distributed between Spain, Algeria, the United Kingdom and France. Together they bring together more than 400 products that reach more than 80,000 points of sale in Spain alone and more than 60 countries. The best known and most iconic is Dulcesol®, market leader in Spain in the field of bread, pastries, pastries and ice cream. In addition, they group together Be Plus®, focused on healthy and convenient eating; Hermanos Juan® Oven, which offers frozen pastries and bread for the hospitality industry and the food channel; Don Giovanni®, with Italian recipes; and FIT`z®, the brand of frozen prepared foods.
Despite this diversification, they do not give up their roots and in 2022 bread accounted for 58% of production, followed by pastries and pastries, with 42%. But, aware of the importance of controlling the management of raw materials, the company also has an egg-producing farm, which supplies 90% of its production, and a packaging manufacturing plant that covers 98% of the company's packaging needs. cluster.
Aware of the important role of I D i, the company inaugurated a Nutrition and Health Innovation Center in 2019, where research is carried out to improve the nutritional profile of all products, as well as new technological developments linked to industry 4.0. Finally, as a sign of its commitment to society, since 2020 it has had the Vicky Foods Foundation to support all its social action.
The company has been committed for years to a more competitive, more sustainable production model with lower energy consumption, as established by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). One of the strategies is the commitment to energy self-consumption through the installation of solar panels. The measure involves an ambitious investment that has already exceeded 2 million euros and has involved the installation of more than 7,000 photovoltaic panels.
This transition to self-consumption translates into almost two tons of CO2 less per year. This measure aims to reduce the carbon footprint in Spanish production plants by 15% by 2025.
In 1983, Antonio Juan died and it was Victoria who took the reins of the business, which was later joined by her children Rafael, Juan José and Mariola. Already in 2007, her son, Rafael Juan, became CEO. Under his leadership, the business takes off exponentially and becomes international. In recent years, the third generation of the Juans has entered. Young, trained in business schools and willing to take the family business to the top. Because with 70 years of history behind it, Vicky Foods remains a 100% family company, but with a presence in more than 60 countries, three production plants (which will soon be joined by an innovative factory in France, currently under construction) , more than 2,800 employees and a global turnover that in 2022 was 536 million euros.
Through its different lines of business, each year they produce thousands of products that they distribute globally, in 2022 there were more than 200,000 tons. And they do not hide their pride that an important – and growing – part of that business is invoiced outside of Spain. France, Portugal, Algeria, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Morocco are some of its main markets. A list that they hope to see grow from the last quarter of this year, when their new plant in Fragnes-La Loyère (France) is operational. It is a modern 22,900 m2 facility, with the latest in industrial technology. It will focus on the manufacture of pastry and bakery products to supply the French market and other neighboring markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Benelux and Northern Italy.
The gala plant will be another milestone in the history of a sweet family legacy. A company with Mediterranean roots where three generations come together and which was born in a bread oven.
