Rafa Margós manages to send a paella made in Valencia, cooked over a wood fire, to any corner of the world
Monthly revenue has increased tenfold in a year and a half, and the outlook is excellent.
They say that one paella The real ones, the ones cooked over a wood fire, can only be enjoyed in certain places, and almost always in Valencia. Rafa Margós, possibly the best A world-renowned chef when it comes to wood-fired paellas, he always had the desire to bring that unique flavor much further away.
To understand the beginning of the project, we have to go back a little over 30 years. "In 1990," Rafa explains, "my father set up a small paella [a place to cook paella] about 10 meters long, in which he set up between 12 and 14 paella pans, and it was a great success. Every year We needed to expand the business; my father made spectacular rice dishes, but we were aware that our range was 10 or 12 kilometers. And we began to "thinking about how to bring this product to other places."
The goal was to package the product and be able to distribute it. But it didn't seem like an easy task, especially... Especially when we're talking about a product as specific as paella. "We asked for help from food laboratories, but one of the first solutions they gave us seemed Absurd: packaging it in plastic. How could we do that? Nobody was going to eat rice. "It was packaged in plastic, so that idea didn't work for us and we kept looking."
They found the solution a few years later in cans. "An acquaintance told me teaching them how to package it and we started doing tests: we made the preparation, we We packaged it and then took it 15, 30, or 60 days later. And we saw the result "It was excellent."
The beginnings were modest, because Rafa Margós makes the best paellas
of the world, &"But I'm not an expert in sales or marketing, so that was missing." "A piece to help the project grow." This paella master contacted then with Nacho Valor, a great expert in the food industry and specialist, Specifically, in sales and marketing. "I visited the facilities and stayed "I was amazed by what they were doing," Nacho admits, "so I immediately joined in." project, first as commercial director and, shortly afterwards, as director general".
They had the product and also the packaging method. In fact, Rafa Margós started to "We did tests from our restaurant in Denia in 2017, and we saw that the system could..." to work." And then the project got the push it needed, even if it was A sudden, unexpected, and forced push: the pandemic. "The restaurant had to close, So we went for it with this formula and created El Paeller."
The quality of Rafa Margós' product and Nacho Valor's business vision
They caused an impressive takeoff for El Paeller. At its facilities in Chiva, in Valencia, "we have 97 linear meters of paella pans, 200 paellas at a time, it's the "World's largest paella pan." And sales multiply year after year: "In 2021 We billed 200,000 euros; in 2022, 660,000 euros; and this year, we will close at around 1.2 "Millions of euros," explains Nacho Valor. And they can't even make forecasts for next few years. "In February 2022 we were billing €12,000 per month; now, close to €120,000 per month, 10 times more. The product is finding a receptive audience. spectacular, and it's impossible to know how far we can go."
THE PRODUCT
What exactly does El Paeller sell? "We make paellas in the traditional style, with firewood, and when we have the broth and all the solid part [the meat, fish, mushrooms or the chosen complement for each paella], we stop the process and package. That is, we stop the cooking process just when we should be adding the rice." And they basically market two varieties of product: broth for those want to use it to cook their own dishes - packaged in cans or glass, depending on the distribution channel - or the complete pack - broth with the solid part and a bag of Rice - for those who want to take advantage of the whole process and prepare a paella in a short time
more than 10 minutes.
Currently, Paeller has four main distribution channels. exports, which account for approximately 30% of revenue: the company sells to 21 countries in Europe, America and Asia, fundamentally. Secondly, he Through the retail channel, they reach many supermarket chains - Costco, Gadisa, the Club Gourmet from El Corte Inglés, Consum, MásyMás...and represents another 30% of the sales.
He The third channel is that of the world of restoration -Horeca-, which represents another 30%. "In this case, we were totally reactive: hotels and restaurants started to "They asked us for the product and we immediately saw it as a great opportunity." Finally, online sales, through their own website or other marketplaces, such as Amazon. This channel accounts for 10% of sales.
The paella industry is experiencing tremendous growth, but they are keeping pace. Production capacity is good. "We've just started working a second shift." "In terms of production, the first one is already operating at full capacity," Nacho Valor explains. The evolution we are experiencing, at least until the end of 2024, gives us the capacity to sufficient production. From then on, we will have to study whether we should expand it."
It has taken years, effort and imagination, but Rafa Margós, who has advised chefs like José Andrés or Quique Dacosta in the assembly of wood-fired cooking workshops Paella has managed to bring its product to every corner of the planet. As always. He wanted to do it ever since his father started cooking paellas in the 90s.
Fountain: The World
