Pascual is one of the iconic mass consumer brands in Spain. A family business, managed by the second generation, whose motto is “giving the best for the future of food.” Founded in 1969, the corporation, now chaired by Tomás Pascual, has been seeking diversification for some time. Not only in products from the food sector but it has also invested in a business as different as real estate, with two bets in Marbella and Aranda de Duero.
It is a company that was born focused on the milk business. “We live for our brands to be recognized,” stated the president of Grupo Pascual last week at a breakfast organized by Esade in Madrid and sponsored by Criteria.
Milk is, in fact, the basis of the company. It emerged milking cows and marketing the product and continues to do so. But it is not the only area. Leche Pascual has been diversifying its business and incorporating brands from different sectors. In the dairy sector, it recently acquired Priégola, a brand specialized in home delivery of cartons. It was no coincidence, the company wanted to grow in this service to reach families directly. It also developed Vivesoy, which boasts of being the only brand of plant-based drinks on the market with 100% ingredients from crops located in Spain. Or Bezoya, which is the second most important brand in the group, incorporated into the company 39 years ago. Or Bifrutas.
More recently, Leche Pascual has opted for coffee and a year and a half ago incorporated Cafés Jurado into its group. “We will continue buying coffee companies to grow in the hospitality industry,” Tomás Pascual said. Liquid egg is also another specialty of the food products group. In total, Leche Pascual has seven milk production facilities, two coffee production facilities, a water bottling plant – one in Catalonia – and the large Aranda de Duero plant, in Burgos.
For Pascual the most important thing is the field. “We take care of the rancher because the key is in the cow,” defended the president of the company. The group has specialized in buying directly from farm professionals and also from farmers, from whom it purchases soybeans and oats for its products. Most of the group's sales, 96%, go directly to supermarkets and hospitality, and only 4% is made through digital channels.
Pascual is a food group that also looks outside of Spain. The president of the company highlighted agreements with companies located in the Philippines, Angola, Central America and Morocco, markets where the company is interested in investing. “Our motto is: ‘Give the best for the future of food,’” said its president.
The Pascual Group is a family company that prides itself on taking care of its workers. “We want employees to feel the company is their own,” is the maxim. A company that has had to combat, and continues to do so, the food crisis. Inflation has caused a “tremendous increase in costs,” explained Tomás Pascual, to which must be added the increase in prices applied by livestock farmers. Other present and future challenges are the shortage of raw materials, such as fertilizers, and problems with transportation. “There is a lack of transporters,” lamented the president. Also drought, a particularly pressing problem in Catalonia. “The cow drinks less, and that affects costs, there has even been a shortage of products,” he noted.
The food sector, or mass consumption in general, is experiencing an unprecedented phenomenon to which the Pascual Group is no stranger. A “tremendous boom” is occurring, explains the president of the company, after the covid, “which shows people's desire to live.” Faced with this situation, the company is converting. Diversifying its products and betting on organic ones, growing, or collaborations with home delivery companies such as Glovo and Uber Eats to reach homes. Pascual speaks of a “reinvention of the company” also motivated by a change in milk consumption habits, the company's traditional business. Previously in Spain they drank more than 100 liters a year and now they consume around 70 liters per person. What has Pascual done? “We are betting on products with protein, which is a component of milk.” One of the challenges of the company and of the food sector in general, explained Tomas Pascual, is to “fight against pseudoscience”, very present in citizen consumption.
Pascual continues to have traditional governance, that of a family business. At the top, on the board of directors, are four brothers. The mother is a permanent guest, but she rarely attends because, according to her president, “she just wants us to get along.” The corporation council is held four times a year and the company policies are set. “We say where we want to go, and the strategies are set by the directors” of each area. As Tomás Pascual explains, for his group, “the biggest challenge is the consumer.”
