Transgourmet Ibérica has reached an agreement for buy the properties of half of its Gros Mercat centers from the Swedish investment firm Sagax Real State, its cash&carry banner. It is a total of 35 Gros Market historical records of the company that until now Transgourmet occupied as part of the lessee.
With this operation, Transgourmet becomes the owner of the properties in 37 of its 70 Gros Mercat. The 35 properties now acquired by Sagax are located in Catalonia, the Valencian Community, the Region of Murcia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, the Community of Madrid, Castile and Leon, La Rioja, the Basque Country and Andalusia. This purchase is in addition to that of Gros Mercat in Manresa and Vinarós which was also made this year.
The company defends that “the acquisition represents a clear commitment to the future of Transgourmet for the continuity of its business in Spain, which has Gros Mercat as one of its strategic axes”.
Heiress of Miquel Alimentació
Transgourmet, owned by a Swiss group, is theheiress of Miquel Alimentaciófounded in Figueres in 1925. The Miquel Ballart family sold the company to Chinese group Bright Food in 2015 in an operation that, journalistic sources, placed at 110 million euros. However, the agreement does not contemplate the sale of a large part of the company’s real estate capital, which would remain in the hands of the Miquel family and would be leased to the new owners. In recent years, however, at least some of these assets ended up in the hands of the Swedish investment firm Sagax Real State, which has now sold them to Transgourmet. With annual sales of more than one billion euros, Transgourmet, based in Vilamalla, is the Girona company with the highest turnover.
Transgourmet Ibérica has six distribution platforms spread throughout Spain and is a benchmark in the hospitality sector with Gros Mercat, its cash&carry brand, which includes 70 centers such as 24 Gm Oil gas stations, and the Food Service division.
The company also has nearly 800 franchised supermarkets under the Suma, Proxim and SPAR brands, and with more than 2,000 independent customers.
In addition, the company explains that Transgourmet is carrying out an important investment program in its Gros Mercat centers as part of its strategic plan, with the aim of completely renewing the cash&carry concept. Thus, in the last year the comprehensive renovation of six Gros Mercats has been carried out, 11 fresh markets have been completely reformed and 13 more Gros Mercats have been updated and re-implanted. “All with the aim of adapting the centers to the needs of the customers” they say.
In addition, a sustainability plan must be added to these investments, which includes as the main project the installation at 36 Gros Mercat of 32,600 square meters of solar panels for self-consumption. The company announced this investment last November for the GMcash-Gros Mercat centers located throughout Spain. In total, the company will spend around seven million euros.
According to Transgourmet Ibérica, this company initiative responds to the objective of minimizing CO₂ emissions and reducing the ecological footprint of its activity. In fact, for years, 100% of the electricity consumed by the company is renewable with a certificate of origin, and before the new investment it already had solar panels for self-consumption in 13 of its cash&carry centers.
Transgourmet also assures that it is implementing other measures that favor the reduction of electricity consumption and the improvement of the efficiency of the facilities. Among these measures, the lighting change to the LED system stands out, the application of cooling technology free of CO₂ emissions, without affecting the environment, and the renovation of the equipment for others with lower consumption.