Ottoman in origin and emigrated to Germany in the sixties with the Turkish “guest workers” who began to sell it in the form of a sandwich, the döner kebab has taken over a not insignificant part of the European appetite in recent decades. This meat inserted into a top and roasted vertically has its particular home in Spain in Toledo, where Ozturk Quebap, a company that has supplied the product for Mercadona’s Hacendado brand since 2021, has been preparing it for 10 years. Özcan Öztürk already had a long history in the sector when he arrived in Spain in 2015 from Germany and rented, together with his uncle and partner, from whom he bought his share a year later, a factory in La Mancha municipality of Casarrubios del Monte. They began producing the iconic skewers for the hospitality industry and in 2018 they decided to promote the production of already cut meat. “I decided to automate and make that line more professional to enter supermarkets a little, to differentiate our path from others,” says the founder and director by video call. When the company started, kebabs did not enjoy a glossy reputation and were normally associated with low quality. «The idea of slicing was also based a little on that. It was clear that the pincho had already reached a point of certain maturity, not only in Spain,» says Hasso Schmidt, executive of the company’s commercial area. “And the product already cut and frozen could be sold to the general public, in supermarkets.” At the beginning of the new millennium, Hasso headed the Istanbul Döner Kebab chain and witnessed the subsequent explosion of restaurants dedicated to this food and the public reaction. «People were beginning to distrust the product a lot. Also due to ignorance. They found the fact that there was a piece of meat hanging around all day in a store very suspicious,» he says. In recent years, both agree, proposals focused on a higher quality and higher offer have helped change perception. “Still, I think, the kebab has a long way to go, because this bad image is not eliminated overnight,” Hasso reflects.Özcan Öztürk, CEO Ozturk QuebapWe are SamaThe paths of Ozturk Quebap and Juan Roig’s supermarket chain crossed in 2019, before the pandemic, and in 2021 they began to work together. “With Mercadona everything changes,” says the director. With the increase in demand, the company purchased a second plant, also in Toledo, in the municipality of Lominchar, which belonged to the poultry wholesale distribution group Sada and which currently concentrates the production of already carved meat. Mercadona is responsible for half of its sales. Working with the supermarket, the managers say, has not only been noticed in the accounts: «We have greatly improved our line to reach the maximum possible level thanks to Mercadona,» says Öztürk about quality and safety controls that include photosensitive technology and artificial vision, among others. When they had been suppliers for about a year, the product disappeared from the freezers of some supermarkets. At that time, Roberto Vidal, known on social networks as El Coach Nutricional, published a video in which he explained that the quality of the product had decreased and that, for example, it contained more pieces of skin and fat. As a consequence, he said in a subsequent publication, Mercadona had withdrawn the product to improve it. Öztürk and Schmidt deny that this was the reason: “When we were growing a lot, we couldn’t cover their need, and they waited a year for us to finish the work.” [de ampliación de su planta] and produce more,» defends the director. The stocks, they say, were not enough to supply all the points of sale, and were limited to those that were available. In this way, they could be found in some stores and not in others. Regarding the discrepancies between the nutritional values and those printed on the bags that are collected in another video, the managers point out that, in addition to having done numerous analyses, these are an average and that they can vary depending on the package and the sample that is extracted.
The king of the catalog
The chicken kebab is the king of its catalogue, with 80% of sales, which are completed by other varieties such as lamb, beef or vegan. Additionally, they continue to produce spikes. Spain is the main market for slicing, but “foreign sales are increasing,” says Schmidt. During this time they have controlled exports to ensure supply to their main customers, but they are already working to expand their production capacity. «We don’t want to sell to other Mercadona competitors. That’s why we want to sell more abroad,» says the director. Among the countries to which its references reach are the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Greece and Hong Kong. They also want to find a place in German supermarkets. «It’s interesting when people see a manufacturer in Spain. Many are in Poland and Germany, and when they see that we are in Spain they are a little surprised,» says Öztürk. Last year, the company had a turnover of 63.8 million euros and this year they expect to exceed 75 million, with a first half in which they recorded revenues of 37.8 million, almost 24% more than in the same period of the previous year. About 260 people work in the two Toledo plants, which together exceed 20,000 square meters. Although it may currently be more linked to home consumption, the company considers that its main product, already cut meat, has a much longer history. “In the same way that you cannot eat a kebab without a skewer at home, you cannot eat a kebab without a skewer in any restaurant that wants to offer a kebab,” says Schmidt. “It not only serves the family at home, but also the entire line of professional catering,” he says. For example, they have already developed a specific reference for pizzerias. “And here we have a lot of potential,” he comments. This does not mean that they have reached their ceiling on the shelves: “Now we are in frozen, but we also want to make refrigerated,” says Öztürk. “Also work with other companies to [productos] ready to eat.”
