Agustí Torelló Mata incorporates the third generation and changes its name to Celler Kripta

Looking to the future hand in hand with the third generation and returning to its origins with a name change. These are the two big novelties with which the cava company Agustí Torelló Mata begins the year, having taken advantage of the framework of the Barcelona Wine Week (BWW) to announce this shift in its corporate identity and explain its growth plans, which involve giving a strong boost to exports and reaching a turnover of six million euros in 2024.

From now on, the winery founded by Agustí Torelló Mata will be called Celler Kripta, identifying the entire company with its most iconic product, Kripta cava, which the veteran businessman, now 88 years old, began producing in 1978. "After 25 years working for other wineries in Penedès, my father, a self-made man, decided to produce, for himself, the best cava in the world. He named it Kripta and bottled it in an amphora-shaped bottle," recalls Gemma Torelló Sibill, president and CEO of the company.

According to the executive director, for ten years, Agustí Torelló Mata was a single-product company, as it only sold Kripta. It was from 1986, when the new winery in Sant Sadurní d'Anoia was inaugurated and the second generation joined, that diversification began, producing a complete range of reserve, gran reserva cavas and still wines, totaling sales of 655,600 bottles in 2023. Of these, 536,800 bottles are superior aged cava (55% reserve and 45% gran reserva) and 118,800 bottles are DO Penedès wines. Of Kripta, this last year, 12,850 bottles were sold, from the 2015 and 2008 vintages.

"Although we produce a dozen different cavas, everyone knows us as the Kripta people, it is the cava that makes us unique. That is why we have decided to change the name of the winery and identify ourselves with the product that gave us our origin. It is not a break, on the contrary, it is to give even more visibility to the brand of which our father is most proud," explains Gemma Torelló. The businesswoman adds that the founder, despite it coinciding with his name, "has never liked the Agustí Torelló Mata brand," because it is too long and difficult to pronounce and recognize in markets like the American. "He has not minded the name change, quite the opposite," she assures.

"More than changing the name, what we do is call things by their name. We are the ones who make Kripta, thanks to a man who was ahead of his time. A pioneering person whom we want to pay tribute and recognition for all the work done," emphasizes Àlex Torelló, also CEO and technical director of the winery. The winemaker also highlights his father's firm defense of the three native cava varieties, which are what give "personality and identity" to Penedès.

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These novelties are carried out in parallel with a new expansion plan for the period 2022-2026 that has set the challenge of growing 5% in volume each year, strongly betting on exports, which they want to increase to 40% by 2026. This would mean doubling the current export volume, from 20%. "The new Celler Kripta brand reinforces our national and international positioning in the segment of great sparkling wines," reflects the firm, which aims, in the long term, to achieve a turnover of ten million euros.

For now, the goal set for this 2024 is to reach sales of six million euros, with 565,000 bottles of cava and 130,000 still wines. In the recently closed 2023 financial year, Celler Kripta grew 6% in volume ---above the 2% forecast-- and invoiced about five million euros, which represents an increase of 12%. Provisional profits amount to 650,000 euros. "We are one of the healthiest, most solid and well-positioned companies in the market," assures the company, whose staff is 24 people.

During 2023, exports grew by 15%, a figure that adds to the 27% increase in 2022. They now account for 20% of the company's total, which exports to 35 countries, mainly in Europe (70%), North America (15%), and the Caribbean, Asia, and South America (15%). The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, and the United States are its main foreign markets. In the domestic market, 55% of sales are made outside Catalonia.