SanLucar supplies various vegetables and fruit, including tomatoes. The company has had a production facility in Tunisia since 2008. "The location where we are located is unique and one of the best regions to grow tomatoes. There is a hot spring in Gabés that we use to heat the greenhouses. The spring also gives our tomatoes their special flavour," says Abel del Villar, brand manager of the company, during the Tomato Conference in Antwerp.
SanLucar's logistics centre in Germany.
Tunesia
"In 2008 we decided to grow ourselves and set up a tomato production in Tunisia," he said. "We discovered that the region Gabés is one of the best regions world wide to grow tomatoes. A hot spring 1,200 metres deep means that the tomatoes are supplied with a mix of minerals that cause the unique taste. Other advantages of Tunisia are that the country is close to Europe and the large amount of hours of sun. The climate is ideal and in the winter months there is a lot more light. We use geothermal water from the spring that heats our greenhouses. This saves energy and is better for the environment. The water is rich in minerals. All conditions added together produces the beautiful tomato with a delicious flavour."
The cultivation in Tunisia.
Spain and Germany
Besides Tunisia, SanLucar gets its tomatoes from Spain, Germany and a small part from the Netherlands. The tomato cultivation in Spain mainly takes place in the regions Almeria and Murcia. We have built up long term relationships with the growers. In Germany the tomatoes come from the region Lower Rhine. Theo grows a lot of different varieties including roma, cocktail and cherry tomatoes. We believe it is of great importance to maintain contact with the growers: we care about our growers, through good times and bad."
SanLucar's tomato concept
SanLucar has developed a concept in which the tomatoes are divided into four different segments. "A lot of people don't know what tomato is suitable for what purpose. We believe this should be obvious when the tomatoes are bought. The four categories are: treat, snack, kitchen and salad. This is the way they are presented in the supermarkets. People immediately recognise our brand due to the unique appearance. We use a lot of marketing and clarify our four categories at the Point of Sale. Other marketing media we use includes folders, information sheets, social media and posters. We have also recently started collaborating with Galbani in marketing, the Mozzerella ball brand." A new project soon to be introduced by SanLucar is the smoothie-concepts, in which various fruit and vegetable combinations are mixed.
Combining origins
The Spanish company SanLucar was founded in 1993 by the German Stephan Rötzer. He founded SanLucar in Valencia. "Today we offer 90 different products from 30 countries. We supply 35 supermarket chains in 20 countries." SanLucar made a turnover of over 400 million Euro in 2014/15. "Over 2500 people work in our main office in Spain and other offices in Germany, Austria, Tunisia, Ecuador, South Africa, Costa Rica, Portugal and the Netherlands." The logistics centre is located in Ettlinger (close to Karlsruhe) where the quality of the incoming fruit is checked. SanLucar sees the world as its garden. "Our goal is to supply constant quality twelve months per year. Over the course of the years we have built up trust among our customers with the SanLucar brand. For most of our products we combine different origins from Europe and overseas."