Ametller Origen has consolidated itself as the main recent success in the distribution sector in Catalonia. Although the company celebrates its twentieth anniversary this year, it has been in this last five-year period that it has accelerated its growth rate, becoming a recognized brand, especially in the Catalan capital, a city where it has best adapted its business model.
In the last three years, the Penedès company, founded by brothers Josep and Jordi Ametller, has doubled its size, going from a consolidated turnover of 162 million euros in 2017 to 310 million in 2020, a year in which it grew by 24% despite the pandemic. If the aggregated sales of the entire business group are included, turnover reaches 370 million.
This sustained double-digit growth rate has been achieved thanks to the strong investment made in the opening of new stores, creating a network of 111 points of sale in Catalonia. Especially important has been the effort made by the company to establish itself in Barcelona's Eixample and in the upper-class neighborhoods of the city, where the chain has found a clientele that prioritizes quality over price and with whom it has succeeded with a store model where fresh and healthy products are the main protagonists, along with an assortment based on convenience, innovation, and flavor.
According to the general director and co-founder of Ametller Origen, Josep Ametller, the goal now is to invest 50 million euros in the opening of 49 more stores in three years, to reach a network of 160 points of sale in 2024 throughout Catalonia and a market share in large-scale distribution greater than 4.5%. All stores will be company-owned, as the company is currently avoiding the franchise growth model. In this phase, extending the chain outside the Catalan market is ruled out.
In parallel to the opening of new establishments, one of Ametller's main growth avenues will be e-commerce. Until now, the family group had timidly ventured into this channel, but the pandemic has skyrocketed demand and the company has buckled down with its online store, which it has had to adapt and scale up at forced march. Specifically, in 2020, Ametller's internet sales soared by 467%, reaching 9 million; in 2019, the figure was around one and a half million. To absorb the increase in demand, the company has invested two million to create two new online distribution centers with the capacity to prepare an average of 1,500 orders per day. One of these warehouses has been located in the Zona Franca.
'Fem Camí', a program to achieve carbon neutrality
At the beginning of 2021, Ametller Origen has just renewed its mobile application, key to its customer loyalty strategy, based on a club model that permanently offers discounts and promotions. The other big novelty of the year is the launch of Fem Camí, an ambitious initiative with which the company wants to intensify its commitment to sustainability, one of the chain's main pillars.
According to Josep Ametller, the challenge is to ensure that by 2027 the group is neutral in CO₂ emissions throughout its entire value chain, that is, also including the supplier network. To this end, the company has activated a system to calculate, minimize, and compensate all its emissions and has created an advisory committee on sustainability made up of thirteen experts who will ensure the scientific rigor of the methodologies used and promote R&D projects that allow reducing the CO₂ footprint in crops, where new water and fertilizer saving techniques will be applied.
"We see ourselves capable of transforming the world by selling chard," says the chain's director, convinced of the "transformative power that each store can have in its neighborhood or environment" and that Ametller will succeed in creating "a social movement" capable of driving the change the planet needs.
In parallel to this sustainability advisory board, Ametller Origen has also created a health advisory board made up of professionals such as Dr. Josep Tabernero, head of the oncology department at Vall d'Hebron Hospital. The mission of this committee is to ensure scientific endorsement in the nutritional aspect of the chain. In this sense, the company has launched a reformulation process for all its processed products to ensure they have a low index of salt, sugar, and saturated fats.
THE INGREDIENTS OF SUCCESS
Many ingredients have contributed to the success of the formerly named Casa Ametller. The main factor is that Ametller has created a vertical integration group that allows it to control the entire value chain, that is, from the field to the plate. It is a strategy that the Guissona group ---owner of bonÀrea--- also used in its day in the meat sector and that now, on a still much smaller scale, Ametller has replicated in the agricultural sector, the authentic origin of the family. And it is that before being distributors, the Ametllers are farmers. The Penedès group owns 1,200 hectares of its own cultivated fields and fruit trees, but the chain has agreements with many producers throughout the Mediterranean arc to supply its stores, in addition to also importing many of its products.
Another key element of Ametller Origen has been its decisive commitment to branded and self-produced processed products, with a centralized workshop model located in Olèrdola that has been a pioneer in promoting strategies against food waste and the circular economy. The processed products division continues to grow thanks to permanent innovation and entry into new categories, a strategy that culminated this 2020 with the creation of Mercat d'Autors, a line of dishes signed by great chefs such as Nandu Jubany and Carles Gaig. The best indicator of Ametller's success in this business segment is to see how competing chains, such as Bon Preu, also sell some of Ametller Origen's star products, such as its vegetable creams.
Apart from having known how to adapt to new consumer habits and a profile of young, urban customers who want to lead a healthy life, Ametller has had other successes, such as its ability to continuously reinvent itself and try new formats, making it difficult to find two completely identical stores. A year ago, the company opened a large flagship store on Numancia street in Barcelona where it has showcased all its potential with the Mercat d'Autors concept. Now, it is already preparing the opening of a second establishment of these characteristics in the Catalan capital.
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