Conservas Garavilla, S.A. was set up on 7 June 1922, with its registered office in Bilbao and a capital of 500,000 Pts., represented by one hundred fully paid-up shares in favour of José Garavilla y Quintana (1870-1934), a businessman who, after leaving his father's home in Lekeitio, had started his independent activity in a small canning factory in Elanchove in 1887. He came from a family of Riojan origin who had emigrated to Lekeitio at the beginning of the 19th century and who, in a second generation, had entered the fish canning business. La Equitativa, the first factory with which Conservas Garavilla started its activity, had been inaugurated in Bermeo on 14 January 1917 and was considered one of the most advanced canning factories of the time, both in terms of its size and the technology used. In 1930, with its founder seriously ill, the management of the company passed into the hands of his son Estanislao Garavilla y Landeta (1911-1998).
The outbreak of the last Civil War abruptly interrupted the expansion of the business. Estanislao began a long journey that took him to the Philippines with an ambitious project to develop fishing and canning in the archipelago. For a decade he had the opportunity to make numerous trips to Europe, Japan and the United States, which gave him a perfect knowledge of the most advanced fishing s, canning techniques and business management. During his long absence, the company was run by his sister María, who had to face the problems of supplying raw materials (mainly oil and tinplate) and the post-war labour shortage.
In the 1950s and 1960s Conservas Garavilla, once again under the management of Estanislao, began a rapid expansion process, with the opening of new factories and the creation of an extensive sales network in the main urban centres of Spain and a growing presence in international markets. The industrial promotion policy promoted by the Franco regime and the credit facilities granted by official credit institutions were fundamental supports. On the other hand, from 1961, Isabel replaced La Equitativa as Garavilla's commercial brand, on the basis of which an intense and innovative advertising campaign was carried out. Supplying large quantities, immediately, at reduced prices, with access to a growing volume of consumers, were the commercial bases on which the company's expansion was to be based.
The growth of Conservas Garavilla also required a major reorganisation of its internal management and production . In order to meet an expanding demand, it was necessary to increase the number of factories, locating them in those ports that could ensure a regular supply of fish. Given the characteristics of the resource, the problems of conservation and transport of the fish, the company could only grow with a dispersed structure, through the opening of new establishments. Thus, Garavilla's expansion during the fifties and sixties took the form of new processing plants in towns with a clear fishing projection: San Juan de la Arena (1954), Mundaka (1956), Vigo (1959), Algeciras (1961), La Línea de la Concepción (1964), Arrecife de Lanzarote (1967) and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (1967). On the other hand, a mass market also made it necessary to process new, more abundant and cheaper products (sardines, mackerel or tuna species such as skipjack, albacore, etc.) and of more regular production (mussels, clams, cockles, etc.).
Without doubt, the extensive experience and knowledge acquired by Estanislao Garavilla in the 1940s and the American influence were decisive in the strategic decisions adopted during these years.
The decade of the seventies was marked by the incorporation of the third generation of the family and the need to face new and more demanding challenges. The growing supply difficulties, an increasingly globalised, open and competitive market and, from the mid-seventies, the problems associated with the general economic crisis, posed a complex and uncertain scenario. From the 1970s onwards, it was necessary to operate on the international market and, above all, to have its own fleet of freezer tuna vessels and transport ships with the capacity to operate anywhere in the world. The overexploitation of the main fishing grounds and species, the consequent reduction in catches and the implementation of increasingly restrictive regulations and regulatory s made it advisable to start a process of vertical integration backwards, ensuring supplies for the different plants and a presence in the main fishing areas. It should be borne in mind that, in the first half of the 1970s, the proportion of raw materials in the final selling price was around 62,5 %, with fish being the basic element.
Although Conservas Garavilla had acquired its first refrigerated transport vessel (‘Conservas Isabel’) in 1969, the leap came 1973 and 1974. A bait fishing vessel (‘Ilusión Laredana’) and a pole-and-line tuna vessel (‘Siempre Laguntasuna’), used as macerators, were incorporated in 1973. A refrigerated transport (‘Frigo Isabel’), two freezer tuna seiners (‘Isabel Dos’ and ‘Isabel Cuatro’) and two new bait boats (‘Nuevo Lamerapunte’ and ‘Goizalde’) completed the fleet in 1974. By 1975, the company's expansion would continue with the construction of a new tuna freezer vessel (‘Isabel Cinco’), designed specifically for fishing in the Pacific Ocean, with which they hoped to achieve self-sufficiency in skipjack and tuna. Manufacturing would be reinforced with the opening of a modern industrial plant in O'Grove (1975), another for the production of canned tuna specifically for the European market in La Línea de la Concepción (where a factory had already existed since 1964) and a third planned for canned sardines in Fuerteventura (Puerto Rosario), which in the end was never built. Four refrigerated warehouses with a storage capacity of 25,000 m3 and another one under construction at the new factory in O'Grove completed the company's main facilities in the mid-seventies. Later, reinforcing its position in strategic fishing areas, Garavilla would build a plant in Manta (Ecuador), through the subsidiary Isabel Ecuatoriana S.A. (1978), and in Agadir (Morocco) in 1993, the latter in anticipation of the end of the fishing agreements the European Union and Morocco.
Along with the difficulties associated with production, the canning industry also had to face the new circumstances imposed by the growing concentration of distribution and changes in sales s. The reduction of the traditional retail trade and the increased bargaining power of large distribution and sales companies reduced the manufacturer's profit margins. Similarly, presence in modern distribution and sales networks sometimes meant agreeing to lose one's own brand to the distributor's brand, which was compensated for by the importance of sales contracts. Estanislao Garavilla, who was familiar with a that was widely implemented in the USA, was able to appreciate its possibilities, thus penetrating the always difficult American market from the end of the 1950s.
By 1975, Conservas Garavilla employed 1,667 workers.
The expansion of the seventies, however, implied a far-reaching financial effort at a time when the international crisis was having an intense impact on Spain and the other western economies. The situation meant that in 1975 a capital increase had to be planned, with the entry of the Banco Industrial de Bilbao with a contribution of 26,665,000 Pts, which represented 25% of the share capital, which, after the increase, stood at 106,665,000 Pts.
From the point of view of production, the economic crisis and the deterioration of employment were orienting demand towards cheaper products (mackerel and sardines, among others). On the other hand, after a long period of diversification, in the second half of the 1970s, a strategy of greater specialisation was considered, reducing the range of products on offer.
From the mid-1980s, with Spain's entry into the European Union and the change in the economic cycle, an ambitious Industrial Remodelling Plan was proposed, which involved a profound modernisation and expansion of the main factories. The area of communication, with heavy investment in advertising and promotion, both nationally and abroad, was also a central element of the project. Two capital increases were carried out, bringing it to 1,613,025,000 Pts., and for the first time, on 14 September 1987, Conservas Garavilla shares were listed on the Bilbao Stock Exchange and on 9 December 1988 on the Madrid Stock Exchange.
In the 1990s, with a major investment effort, a complete renovation of the company's main assets was carried out, affecting both the fleet and the land-based facilities. At the turn of the century, Conservas Garavilla was still a family-based company (although the Banco de Bilbao controlled 41 % of the capital). With plants in Bermeo, O'Grove, Algeciras, Lanzarote, Agadir and Manta, six refrigerated tuna vessels and a ship for transport, it was self-sufficient at around 60 %. Turnover was 28 billion pesetas, exporting around 19% of its production to more than 70 countries (mainly France, Italy and Latin America), making it one of the leading companies in the sector at European level.
From 2001 onwards, the company imposed a rigorous policy of cost containment and disinvestment in certain assets. The former plants in Lanzarote and Algeciras, dependent on the Moroccan fishing grounds, were closed in 2001 and 2002 respectively, following the non-renewal of the fishing agreements with Morocco. The Bermeo factory, the group's oldest, will be closed in 2002 and its production, as well as the company's central offices, will be transferred to the modern facilities built in the neighbouring town of Mundaka. Production was thus reduced to four plants located in Mundaka, O'Grove, Agadir and Manta. In 2005, the total direct employment of the company, in its different factories and ships, stood at 2,350 workers.
Each of these plants has specific characteristics and functions. The O'Grove plant, which initially specialised in mussels, squid, octopus and light tuna, underwent a major investment in technology, production capacity and cold storage in 2000-2001. Since 2004, it has been supporting one of the company's most important innovative lines, based on the production of different ready-to-eat salads. The Agadir plant, set up in 1993, has been replacing the production of the Algeciras and Lanzarote plants, specialising in mackerel, anchovies and sardines. The Manta plant, the largest, was completely remodelled in 2001 and specialises in processing large tuna from its fleet of freezer tuna vessels operating in the Pacific. It caters to the specific demand of the surrounding Latin American countries and the United States. Finally, the Mundaka plant, the smallest of all, has a built-up area of 7,000 m2 and is used for processing tuna to the highest quality standards. The company's head offices are located there.
Coinciding with a strategy of divestment in industrial assets carried out by BBVA, in 2006 the Garavilla family closed a complex agreement whereby it acquired a 41% stake in the company, which had belonged to the bank since 1975, for more than 11 million euros. In this way, the Garavilla family regained ownership of 100% of the company's capital.