Grupo Gallo, better known as Pastas Gallo, is one of those historic brands that has always been part of the shopping basket of many Spaniards. With 80 years of history, it began its journey in 1946 in Rubí (Barcelona) with a flour factory founded by Josep Espona Bañares. As generations passed, like many Spanish family businesses, it went up for sale and passed into the hands of the venture capital group ProA Capital, which acquired it in 2019 for more than 225 million euros. With the majority of the shares in the hands of the investment group, except for a minimal participation that the family retains, Grupo Gallo, which has its particular golden goose in pasta, has explored new business avenues, such as prepared dishes, with broths as its trio of aces, and its commitment to internationalization, in addition to fighting private label pasta with innovative products. With around 700 employees, its turnover in 2024 (last year published) was 226.5 million euros, compared to 235.4 million in 2023, and a 3% drop in sales, which the group attributes to the rise in the cost of raw materials and pressure from manufacturer brands. «Now we must face this decline, although since ProA entered, turnover has increased by 50%. Our objective is to maintain market share, bet on innovation and recover the level of 2023,» says Néstor Nava, general director of Grupo Gallo, who took office in May 2024. Historical image of the Pastas Gallo factory in Rubí (Barcelona). COURTESY PASTAS GALLOLInternationalization is an objective that all Spanish agri-food companies seek, but Nava recognizes that the ideal assets must be found to achieve it. In pasta, its main business unit, it warns of the competition it faces abroad with Italian pastas. “It represents an obvious difficulty, but we stand up to it with innovations that provide something different,” he explains. In the ready meals segment, its main destination is Europe, where “we are growing hand in hand with the German supermarkets Lidl,” he adds. A task for which, according to the general director, the purchase of companies is not in his plans, «although there are always options.» Nor have they established a new strategic plan. “The one that existed was interrupted by the covid and it is the one that we have in progress now.” What they did seek was the specialization of their four factories to facilitate product diversification. The former flour factory in El Carpio (Córdoba), acquired in 1958, now the largest in the group, has been producing only dry pasta since 2021, when production was moved from the Barcelona plant in Granollers. A change that Nava justifies to be closer to durum wheat producers, the majority in Andalusia. «Our products are made 100% with national wheat, if it is of quality. Only if there are problems, do we buy abroad.» For its part, the Granollers factory, active since 1960, focuses its production on broths and fresh pasta. The Esparreguera factory (Barcelona) is dedicated to gluten-free products and the Sant Vicenç dels Horts (Barcelona) factory is reserved for the production of Asian ready-made dishes. To implement this plan, Gallo has invested 50 million euros in the last three years, a figure that also includes innovation and digital transformation plans. Among ProA Capital’s projects, Nava specifies, is maintaining a similar investment ratio in the coming years. Prepared meals are a decisive pillar in Gallo’s conversion into a global food company that not only sells pasta. A range that lives moments of glory with skyrocketing general consumption. This is clear from the Prepared Dishes study recently published by the DBK Sector Observatory, which indicates that after the 5.6% increase recorded in 2024, the value of sales of prepared dishes in the Spanish market is expected to approach an additional growth of around 4% in 2025, with a figure of 4,340 million euros. A context that led it to acquire the Ta Tung Asian dishes brand in 2020, owned by the Cambodian businesswoman Kav-ly, with headquarters and factory in Sant Vicens del Horts and sales of around 15 million annually. “Our goal is to maintain that share on the shelves and, additionally, develop other pasta and rice-based dishes that complement it.”
Broths
The production of broths is another of its pillars for the future. A market in which, the manager assures, the competition is close and well established (Aneto or Gallina Blanca). But it defends the quality of its brand with the argument that its chicken broths, for example, contain at least 33% of this ingredient. Gallo has been in this sector since 2023 with 31% growth since then. Its market share is around 3% (including branded production for manufacturers). The latter division has been part of its strategy from the beginning. Nava explains that 50% of wine consumption in Spain is in the hands of private label brands and “they had to be there.” Meanwhile, the dried pasta remains the philosopher’s stone. With a great variety on the shelves – from classic, whole wheat, gluten-free pasta (with a production of more than 2.5 million kilos, 10% more than in 2023), for salad, egg, couscous, stuffed or organic -, it assumed a 19.6% market share in 2024 and a production of more than 93 million kilos annually. The success of its growth, the manager emphasizes, must come from innovation. Thus, they have launched single-ingredient varieties of lentils, peas or chickpeas, the so-called bronze pasta (more porous and absorbs the sauce better) or the +Protein, with 40% more protein than the classic one. «With this we cover a series of needs that consumers demand and that the private label does not reach.» But not alone. They have gone a step further with the implementation of other sales strategies, such as lowering the weight of the package (from 500 to 450 grams, for example), with the consequent reduction in the price to one euro in this case, established as a permanent promotion, in three of its main references: feather, noodle and spaghetti. «We must adjust to the customer’s consumption needs and be competitive with respect to the distribution brand. This way, consumers have access to products with reasonable prices, which translate into a price differential of around 30% with respect to the distributor brand,» he concludes.
