In the Sabater family, everything stays in the laboratory. Cristina and Glòria Sabater have spent their whole lives in one, since they were very young, starting to work in the Sabater Tobella laboratories in Barcelona, founded by their father, Dr. Joan Sabater Tobella. This explains why, when they set out to create their own distribution company, they very soon ended up developing their own formulas. The result is Salengei, a brand of anti-aging food supplements that is now making the leap to Europe with its arrival in Germany and Portugal.
After the sale of the family laboratory to Sampletest, later integrated into the French group Labco —now Synlab—, both sisters continued to work there. In the laboratory, they had been dealing with anti-aging medicine for quite a few years, being pioneers in analyses to measure aging in markers such as oxidation levels. It was there, talking to doctors to whom they sent the results, that they detected that many food supplements were not reaching Spain. They had started buying them for the family, but they saw an opportunity to make them available to more customers. So in 2008 they opened a shop to sell these hard-to-find products, located on Paseo de la Bonanova, "as a weekend hobby," the sisters say.
A few years later, Cristina Sabater, CEO of Salengei, left the laboratory when they became the Spanish distributor for pharmacies of anti-aging products from major international supplement brands, such as the Japanese Osato and the Dutch Rejuvenal. Things grew, and they moved their shop to Via Augusta, where they still are.
But the family trajectory pulled, and Glòria Sabater, Doctor in Pharmacy and technical director of Salengei, began to develop her own products when they again found new market niches. They also found inefficiencies in the sector, such as having to buy more than one supplement for the same symptom, with clients who even sent Excel sheets of everything they had been recommended, so they opted to offer supplements with a multiple approach for consequences of aging such as low defenses, sleep problems, cholesterol, or poor digestion.
Currently, Salengei has a portfolio of almost 20 references, to which a supplement for menopause will be added this year. R&D is handled by Glòria Sabater, who keeps up to date with clinical trials on anti-aging and designs the formulas, defining the necessary ingredients and dosages. Manufacturing is outsourced to a laboratory in Spain. Here it must be remembered that food supplements do not replace a balanced diet, nor do they serve to treat or prevent any disease; for the latter, there are medicines.
International expansion comes after its participation last year in Vitafoods, a professional fair that will now move to BarcelonaWith more than 15 years of experience, Salengei's turnover in 2024 was 2.5 million euros. Revenue is distributedbetween 60% of product distribution and 40% of its own brand sales, which has prices ranging from 30 euros to 100 euros. Recently, they have entered Alibaba's digital market for businesses, where manufacturers are already interested in their formulas. With a staff of 20 workers, the company reinvests all profits, which represent 10% of turnover.
The Barcelona-based company expects that entering new markets will allow them to increase revenue, with a focus on Europe, in markets such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Nordic countries, and Baltic countries, but they are also in talks to reach Chile and China. The company's international expansion comes after its participation last year in Vitafoods, a professional fair historically held in Geneva and which will now move to Barcelona. The CEO of Salengei hopes that the arrival in the Catalan capital, in addition to facilitating everything for them, will allow them to access a more European public, with the previous headquarters more dominated by Swiss visitors.