Transgourmet wants to become the first hospitality distributor in Spain

GironaThe food distribution company Transgourmet Ibérica has set itself the goal of becoming the leading distributor in the hospitality sector throughout the State. Based in Vilamalla, this company is celebrating its centenary this year at a very good time, as explained by the general director, Lluís Labariu, at the beginning of the celebration events that took place in Girona. "The key to reaching one hundred years is because, at different times in history, first the family and then the management team, have known how to make the right decisions to adapt the company to the needs of each moment," said Labariu. With more than 1.2 billion in turnover in 2024, Transgourmet Ibérica is the company with the highest turnover in the Girona regions for years.

Since 2019, they have undertaken a refoundation that has led them to create a thousand new jobs in the last six years. The pandemic has not particularly affected them either. "We came out of it pretty well; the staff never stopped getting paid and we didn't do any ERTO," added Labariu. Currently, the workforce is 2,700 workers throughout Spain.

Company from the Empordà region

Pere Miquel i Estela founded the company in Figueres in 1925 and the only surviving son, Amadeu Miquel, aged 94, described his father as "a great entrepreneur with a great business vision". Miquel recalled that his grandfather was also one and that at the end of the 19th century he founded, in Les Escaules, a cement company that still exists today, Ciments Miquel, which is now in the hands of the fifth generation. "My father was the youngest and had to fend for himself," said Miquel, who remembers the post-war period as an even more difficult period than the war "because the big problem was being able to buy". Miquel also staunchly defended the family business.

In 1970 they opened Gros Mercat, the first cash and carry from Spain. "On a trip to England I saw one and I told my brothers that we could open a similar one in Figueres," Miquel recalled. Today, they have 70 cash and carry, they have just bought three in the Islands from the Moyà Saus group and have three more planned, in Mercabarna, Leganés and Fuerteventura.

The company has been run by the Miquel family for 90 years until they sold it to a Chinese group in 2015. In 2021, this group sold it to the Transgourmet group, which belongs to the Swiss cooperative Coop.