From a winning lottery ticket in 1940 to 40 million liters of ice cream. The surprising history of La Menorquina could be summarized like this, although many nuances of the trajectory of what has become the first manufacturer with its own brand at a national level would be lost. And despite the Menorcan origin of the company, Barcelona plays a key role, through its plant in Palau-Solità i Plegamans.
Now, the company has everything ready to make the largest investment it has made so far in the Vallès factory: it will allocate 15 million euros to expand the plant, with a new production line, with which it will reach 23 in total. This new line, moreover, will be multifunctional: it will allow the production of chocolates, sandwiches, and spirals in the same facility. The operation will involve expanding the productive space by 1,100 square meters, occupying the current dry warehouse, which will be moved to an adjacent building.
The new line will be operational in early 2027, as a high-performance facility capable of producing up to 30,000 units per hour. "It's like having two lines in one," remarked the company's CEO, Ivan Leal. With this capacity, the new line will allow for an annual growth of 10 million liters of ice cream, "reaching a total figure at the plant of 40 million liters of available ice cream," he highlighted, in an event with the Minister of Industry, Jordi Hereu, and the Minister of Business, Miquel Sàmper, in addition to the mayors of Palau-Solità i Plegamans, Oriol Lozano, and Santa Perpètua de Mogoda, Isabel García, and the vice president of Foment del Treball, Mar Alarcón.
In addition, the investment will create up to 200 jobs and reinforce a workforce that already approaches 750 employees, more than 500 of whom work in Palau-Solità i Plegamans. In parallel, the company maintains a sustained growth rate of 15% annually since 2019, with sales reaching 131 million euros in 2025, and with the goal of continuing to grow in double digits in 2026.
International Ice Creams
But beyond the figures, the expansion consolidates Vallès as the epicenter of a company from which ice creams depart to nothing more and nothing less than40 countries.In fact, more than a third of its sales are destined for export, with a particularly prominent weight for the United States. So much so that between 25% and 30% of production travels there, where the brand has found commercial allies in distribution giants such as Walmart and Costco. In them, products from the company can be found, all of them coming from the Vallès plant that is now being expanded.
"Innovating in the product to differentiate it and generate more quality is a way to overcome barriers such as tariffs, and La Menorquina is a magnificent example of a company that exports to the main distribution groups in the United States," Hereu highlighted. The company, furthermore, is in a phase of both national and international expansion.
And while its ice creams shine on shelves thousands of kilometers away, the productive heart grows in Vallès, with a history initiated with a stroke of luck in the lottery and sustained with bets and investments like the one that will now expand the factory. Thus, a story that began with this winning ticket and with the sale of ice creams with two-wheeled carts around Menorca, continues its path towards growth and internationalization, with the Barcelona plant as its spearhead.
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