The bonÀrea group breaks sales record and exceeds 2,200 million after growing 13%

The bonÀrea Corporación group continues to climb positions in the ranking of the largest companies based in Catalonia, with a turnover volume that in 2021 reached 2,250 million euros, the highest in its history. It is the first time that the Lleida-based food corporation exceeds 2,000 million euros after earning 13% more in the last year, especially thanks to the pull of the fuel sales business.

Thus, the engineering and energy division, which includes the 60 low cost bonÀrea gas stations, recorded sales of 492 million euros in 2021, a 47% increase compared to the 333 million in 2020, a year in which the volume of fuel supplied decreased due to the reduction in mobility caused by the lockdown.

The group's main source of income generation, however, are the 540 stores of the bonÀrea chain, with 943 million. If sales made through other channels ---exports and hospitality--- are added, the human food division reached a turnover of 1,195 million, a 0.4% increase. In parallel, the production of feed or animal food has generated 490 million.

In the last year, bonÀrea has opened 16 new supermarkets and has remodeled or relocated another 16 points of sale. Its 540 stores are located in Catalonia, Aragon, Castellón, Valencia, Madrid, Guadalajara, Navarra, La Rioja and Andorra. In 2021, three new service stations were also inaugurated, reaching a network of 60.

The company based in Guissona (Lleida) has a great competitive advantage: it is a fully verticalized group that controls the entire value chain, from farm to plate, thus eliminating intermediaries and, furthermore, its capital structure allows it to reinvest the bulk of its profits. Despite the efficiency that this integration entails, the rising cost of energy and raw materials has punished the group's margins, which has seen its net profit reduce by 15%, to 65.47 million.

bonÀrea explains that to avoid high price increases in bonÀrea stores, these cost increases have not been fully passed on, which has narrowed commercial margins. Another factor that has reduced the group's profitability is lower pork exports.

Despite lower earnings, bonÀrea redoubled its investment efforts last year by allocating 130 million, 28% more, to the improvement and expansion of its facilities and new openings. Most of it has been allocated to the construction works of its new production complex in Épila (Zaragoza), which will join the one the group owns in Guissona and will allow bonÀrea to expand towards northern Spain.

The company continues to act as an employment engine, with a workforce reaching 5,745 employees, after creating 84 new jobs in 2021. Of this figure, 4,389 are permanent employees at bonÀrea Corporación, 1,005 from service companies, and 351 self-employed drivers. If employees under the umbrella of bonÀrea Agrupa are added—a figure that also includes the cooperative, Caixa Guissona, and other social companies linked to the group—the number of workers rises to 6,178 people.

Presidida per Jaume Alsina, bonÀrea Corporación is currently a public limited company and its capital is distributed among the farmers and ranchers who are also members of bonÀrea Cooperativa, the former Cooperativa de Guissona. Thus, the farms and agricultural holdings linked to the cooperative are responsible for supplying raw material to bonÀrea Corporación, which is the company responsible for the transformation, processing, and marketing of products through its chain of own stores. The corporation also owns eleven feed factories and a veterinary division.

In the last year, the cooperative's members have produced 34 million chickens, 1.4 million turkeys, 2.8 million quails, 41 million dozens of consumption eggs, 858 thousand fattening pigs, and 57 thousand calves.