ZGreens began in Zaragoza in 2019 as a microgreens producer focused on high-end hospitality. Five years later, the company continues to supply chefs with microgreens and edible flowers, but its ambitions have expanded. Founder Juan Naudin now sees ZGreens as a business shaped less by novelty and more by lived operational reality. "We started with microgreens, focused on the hospitality industry," Naudin says. "High-end restaurants were the starting point, and are still generating revenue for us."
Alongside microgreens, ZGreens grows edible flowers and tests aromatics such as basil and cilantro, adjusting its offering based on market response. Competing in Spain, however, has never been straightforward. "Spain is a great greenhouse producer," Naudin says. "It's complicated to offer a high-end product when you are competing with powerful greenhouse companies, and even with Morocco. So we focus on products where quality and differentiation really matter."
© ZGreensJuan Naudin with ZGreens' restaurant-facing grow cabinet (left) and a modular mobile cultivation unit conceived as a scalable building block for small, ready-to-operate growing facilities (right)
Experience before systems
ZGreens' shift toward system design did not come from a desire to become a technology company. It came from repetition, frustration, and time. "Five years ago, like most people, we bought shelves, watched YouTube videos, and tried to make things work," Naudin says. "You think it will be cheaper when you start, and it's completely false. At the end, you spend double, and it doesn't work."
That experience now informs how he thinks about the market for new growers. "In Spain, it's really difficult to find someone who offers a ready-to-start installation. Maybe it exists, but no one knows it. People buy shelves thinking they can start growing tomorrow. That's not how it works."
Rather than selling generic equipment, Naudin believes the gap is in ready-to-operate systems that acknowledge real costs, timelines, and labor. "What people need is something with a guarantee," he says. "Something where you can start growing tomorrow and start generating revenue very quickly."
Growing as a service inside restaurants
One of the clearest examples of this thinking is a restaurant-focused grow cabinet ZGreens began developing several years ago. The concept is not a DIY system, but a managed service.
"The idea was growing as a service. We install the cabinet in the restaurant, the restaurant harvests, and we replace the plants." Unlike back-of-house growing units, the cabinet was designed to be visible. "We wanted something to be shown. Part of the service, part of the experience. Not hidden in the back."
Material choices reflect that goal, even if they raise costs. "The main cost of the prototype is the design," Naudin says. "We wanted something that belongs in a restaurant space."
Operationally, the restaurant is not expected to manage the system. "The restaurant shouldn't have another problem. It should be like a coffee machine in an office. We maintain the machine, we control nutrients, light cycles, and ventilation. They only harvest."
The concept has not yet been commercialized, largely due to the upfront cost of producing multiple units. "To make this business model work, we would need to produce at least ten cabinets. They are expensive. We need the right partner to start."
Why ZGreens moved into saffron research
ZGreens' involvement in AZAFARM, a collaborative project exploring controlled-environment saffron cultivation, has brought wider attention to the company. Naudin is clear about his motivation. "We are more interested in developing the device than in producing saffron itself. The goal is to make a prototype that can flower saffron reliably."
After multiple flowering cycles under different conditions, early results are encouraging. "We are maybe at three times traditional production," Naudin says. "But for me, the big gain is not only yield. It's the work. Harvesting on a table, in a controlled room, at 25 degrees. That matters. When work is easier, it becomes cheaper."
Yet he is cautious about overstating the opportunity. "If you only flower saffron once a year, it's very difficult to make money. That is the real problem to solve." For Naudin, economic viability depends on breaking saffron's seasonal constraints. "The key is to get corms ready to flower every month," he says. "If we solve that, everything changes."
Devices, not vertical integration
Rather than vertically integrating saffron production, Naudin envisions a different role. "I don't want to do everything. We sell devices, and others flower saffron and sell it. You win, and I win."
That thinking extends beyond saffron. "I'm focused on developing devices and ready-to-operate facilities. People want to start a business and get revenue fast. They don't need promises, they need real numbers."
Naudin points out that ZGreens has those numbers. "I know the revenue per square meter for microgreens in Spain," he says. "I have five years of data. That's very different from what you see online."
A modular future
At the core of ZGreens' current design work is modularity. During the interview, Naudin shared early visuals of a mobile cultivation unit designed as the basic building block of a facility. "For me, the unit is the key," he says. "Once you solve the unit, you can scale whatever you want."
For now, much of ZGreens' work remains iterative. Prototypes are still being refined, projects are still running, and some ideas have yet to find the right commercial partner. In Naudin's view, progress only comes through trial, and mistakes often take a full season to reveal themselves.
For more information:
ZGreens 
© Azafarm
Juan Naudin, Founder
+34 609 863 762
[email protected]
www.zgreens.es
