Many can agree with the idea that every crisis also generates opportunities for change and growth, although not as many are actually capable of carrying it out successfully.
An example of a successful attempt at redirecting a company's future is the Algosur business group, an agro-industrial group founded in 2005 and originally focused on cotton ginning. In the early years, the conditions were optimal, but they saw the foundation of their project shaken in 2009 due to the restructuring of the ginning sector, at the time when CAP subsidies led to the disappearance of over twenty Andalusian cotton companies.
One of the survivors was Algosur, which weathered the storm mostly as a result of its reputation and the success of its long fibre cotton in Europe, which was the result of adapting an Egyptian seed to Andalusia's growing conditions and considered quite a unique product.
At that time, despite barely facing any competition in the cotton sector, the president and owner of Algosur, Antonio Martín Antúnez, decided to open other fronts and acquired a seed factory in Los Palacios, and shortly after, they also bought the agricultural cooperative Pinzón (in the municipality of Utrera), with facilities totalling over one hundred thousand square metres of land, with a tomato processing plant and cotton ginners.
This cooperative had previously entered bankruptcy after making a very large investment in the plant's refurbishment and lacking the necessary productive means to supply it for optimum performance.
That is how Alpinsur was born, with the idea of diversifying the business to better tackle the cotton crisis. Gradually, the move made the plant profitable, to the point that there again was insufficient extensive irrigated land in the area. But this time, the new owner came in touch with growers from other areas, including Lebrija, Cádiz, Villamartín, Bornos, Jerez, Palma del Río, La Palma del Condado, Sanlúcar la Mayor, Niebla, San José de La Rinconada, Brenes and Tocina.
Such was the production level that they bought a tomato processing plant to the cooperative Las Palmeras in El Trobal (in the municipality of Los Palacios). In fact, in just four years, Alpinsur has become the third largest producer of industrial tomatoes in Spain (the world's fourth largest producer, behind the United States, China and Italy), thanks to the more than 7,000 tonnes processed daily during the season (10 July to 10 September), generating ninety direct jobs and hundreds of indirect ones, and exporting 80% of its production outside Spain, to countries like the UK, Germany, Belgium, France, Poland, Russia, Turkey, Malaysia or Japan.
It is remarkable that, despite what one may assume from the name of the company, tomatoes have now far exceeded the annual turnover of cotton, which was the origin of the business.
In Alpinsur, the product is processed from fresh tomatoes of the variety Lycopersicum esculentum. Their skins and seeds are removed and then the water is extracted, which results in concentrate. The next step is sterilising, cooling and aseptically filling sterile bags with it, which extends the shelf life to up to two years without the use of preservatives. The products resulting from this process include tomato concentrate, pizza sauces or crushed tomatoes, among others, for companies like Heinz, Ybarra, Orlando, Prima, Mercadona, McDonalds or Casa Tarradellas.
Source: sevilla.abc.es
