Gallo will manufacture a new type of pasta made with legumes in Esparreguera

Wheat will no longer be the only ingredient used by the Gallo group for the production of pasta. The company has decided to explore the elaboration of products made 100% with legumes, thus joining one of the great global trends in the food sector: the commitment to vegetable protein and alternative products to meat with a healthy profile. The Barcelona-based group has just developed and launched its first range of legume pasta, consisting of four products: pea flour macaroni, chickpea spirals, red lentil spirals, and chickpea noodles.

This new category within the food sector will progressively arrive in supermarkets and will be manufactured at Gallo's plant in Esparreguera, in Baix Llobregat, where fifteen people work. The order to produce this innovation has involved an initial investment of 100,000 euros and will give a strong boost to these facilities, which since 2015 have specialized in the production of gluten-free pasta. In that first year, 600 tons of gluten-free pasta were manufactured in Esparreguera, but today production has more than tripled, reaching 2,000 tons recorded in 2020, from 21 different references. Now, thanks to the legume flour line, Gallo expects Esparreguera to produce 300 more tons each year.

"Gallo's objective is to provide an innovative and high-quality response to new eating habits and the nutritional needs posed by society," explains the group, which has set out to lead this new category with the Gallo Nature 100% Legumes line.

This is one of the first commercial and industrial projects launched by the Gallo group since it was acquired from the Espona family by the private equity fund Proa Capital in the summer of 2019. The new owners have also diversified the company with the purchase of Ta-Tung ---announced last summer---, a company specialized in refrigerated oriental cuisine dishes with a plant in Sant Vicenç dels Horts.

In parallel, ProA Capital has also decided to carry out a specialization process of the factories that has negatively affected the Granollers plant, as it has lost production in favor of the center that the group owns in El Carpio, in the province of Córdoba. From now on, El Carpio will concentrate the manufacturing and packaging of both short and long dry pasta, an activity that was shared with Granollers. In the historic facilities it has in the capital of Vallès Oriental, Gallo will maintain the production of flat pasta, that is, the sheets for making cannelloni and lasagna; and also the fresh pasta and ready meals division. In Esparreguera, gluten-free and legume-derived references will be made.

Of the 34 workers affected by this reorganization of the dry pasta section, effective since this April, 12 will continue working in Granollers, but in the fresh pasta area. Another group of 14 employees have been relocated to the Ta-Tung facilities in Sant Vicenç dels Horts; two have moved to El Carpio and 6 have accepted compensation and left the company.

With a turnover of 200 million euros, Gallo leads the food pasta market in Spain, with a share close to 35%. The group is led by Fernando Fernández and one of its objectives in this new stage with ProA is to grow its fresh pasta and refrigerated products business. The acquisition of Ta-Tung is along these lines, but the company is preparing new products that will be developed and manufactured at the Granollers center.