Veritas advances in its new growth strategy with larger stores. The Catalan organic supermarket chain, which has just celebrated its 20th anniversary, inaugurated this week in Arenys de Mar (Maresme) a new establishment of almost 400 square meters of sales area and equipped with parking. The store has been built from scratch, on a plot located at the foot of the N-II road, and is an example of the format ---called stand-alone, in industry jargon--- with which the company wants to grow.
Veritas's goal is to open 20 stores in the next three years, which would allow it to reach one hundred points of sale by the end of 2025. According to the company, the strategy involves opening premises between 500 and 800 square meters and with parking. Now, the Barcelona brand has a network of 79 supermarkets, after three stores were closed in the last year for not fitting its new business model. In 2022, a new opening was also executed and nine establishments were renovated, with an investment that reached 1.7 million euros.
The company, which was a pioneer in the sale of organic products in Spain, closed the 2022 financial year with a growth of 5.1%, reaching a turnover of 113 million euros. From the last year, Veritas also highlights the sharp increase in the cost of supplies, which has soared by 92%. The company also emphasizes that it has made "an effort to contain prices" to avoid passing on all this cost growth to its customers.
"The Veritas group continues with the solid and sustained growth of recent years," says Silvio Elías, president of the chain, after pointing out that "the expansion strategy until 2025 demonstrates confidence in the company's growth potential and in our ability to lead this market."
The Elías family ---former co-owner of Caprabo--- founded Veritas at the beginning of 2002 with three partners who are currently still shareholders of the company: the Pont families (from Borges) and Martí and the Esade professor Carles Torrecilla. Also part of the shareholding are Pello Aizpuru and Elisabeth Hofmann, the couple who founded the Valencian organic food chain Ecorganic, which was acquired by Veritas in mid-2019. In addition to Catalunya and the Valencian Community ---where there are a dozen Ecorganic stores---, the group operates in the Basque Country, the Balearic Islands, Madrid and Andorra, as well as selling through its online store.
Since its inception, Veritas has had the vision of "democratizing" access to organic food and maintains its purpose of being "a transformative company," according to Elías, who recalls that the company was the first European supermarket chain to receive the demanding BCorp certification. This is a seal that obliges companies to incorporate into their corporate purpose not only the generation of business, that is, economic ends, but also their commitment to improving the health of people and the planet. The firm now has 800 employees.
"We are a very passionate company, we have always wanted to lead change and be ahead, anticipating all regulations and with a titanic dissemination effort that we want to continue doing in the future," explained Silvio Elías in an interview with The New Barcelona Post on the occasion of the 20th anniversary.
Veritas has a 10,000 square meter logistics platform in Lliçà d'Amunt, where its bakery workshop and the kitchen where it prepares the ready meals it sells in stores are also located. Online orders and those from the Veritas Eco Food Service division, specialized in the supply of organic food for the hospitality and catering sector, are also dispatched from Lliçà.