This month marks ten years since Teresa Carles Borrás, from Lleida, opened her first restaurant in Barcelona. It was a brave gamble at a time when vegetarian cuisine was not as fashionable as it is now, but her pioneering spirit has allowed Carles to build a business group comprising eight restaurants, which has now also reached supermarkets thanks to Flax & Kale Goods, a line of prepared vegetable and flexitarian dishes ---they include fish--- with which she plans to achieve strong growth in the coming years.
After invoicing 13.2 million euros in 2019, the company has seen its revenues reduce to 8 million euros this 2020, as a consequence of the pandemic and the opening limitations of establishments. This year, however, the company led by Jordi Barri ---son of Teresa Carles--- is optimistic and has set itself the challenge of more than doubling its turnover, to reach sales of 20 million euros.
The arrival of its flexitarian dishes with the Flax & Kale brand in supermarkets such as Bonpreu, Esclat, Ametller Origen, Obbio and El Club del Gourmet of El Corte Inglés will be key to this growth objective. This is a new business line that the company launched a year ago through its online store. Now it has entered supermarkets, where all chains are making space on their cold shelves to accommodate the avalanche of plant-based foods that big brands such as Nestlé, Unilever or Gerblé are also developing.
The Flax & Kale Goods line developed in the Bell-Lloc workshop by the Teresa Carles team includes vegetable and tofu-based dishes, mushroom cannelloni, Alaskan salmon with quinoa, vegetable black rice with edamame or pappardelle with vegetable-based bolognese sauce.
Although it has been ten years since she opened her restaurant on Jovellanos street in Barcelona, Teresa Carles has been dedicated to the world of cooking since 1979, when with her husband, Ramón Barri, she opened the vegetarian restaurant Paradís, in Lleida, one of the first in Spain. With their arrival in Barcelona in 2011, they wanted to show that eating healthy was not synonymous with eating boring and seduced diners with recipes such as eggplant and mushroom rolls or artichoke hearts with caramelized onion and vegetable mozzarella. It is estimated that during this decade, one million customers have passed through the Teresa Carles restaurant.
Teresa Carles Healthy Foods grew in Barcelona with the opening of the Flax & Kale restaurant, the first to call itself flexitarian, as it also cooks some animal products such as fish. Today the company has eight establishments, mainly in Barcelona, although it is also present in Madrid and Lleida. Currently, due to sanitary restrictions, Flax & Kale à Porter, located inside the H&M store in Passeig de Gràcia, and Flax & Kale Street, located in La Roca Village, are closed. Teresa Carles Healthy Foods was the first Spanish restaurant company to obtain the international B Corp certificate, meaning a company that incorporates into its corporate purpose the mission of improving the planet. The Veritas chain and Danone are also BCorp companies.