Hero's Spanish subsidiary has become the Swiss company's largest production centre in the baby food and jam categories. One hundred years have passed since the firm first established a plant in Alcantarilla (Murcia) to export fruit and vegetables grown in the Murcia region to the parent company in Switzerland, and the investment has paid off.

That was on 20 January 1922, and today the Spanish headquarters is still based in the same town, from where it continues to export up to 25 tonnes of fruit and vegetables a year to countries all over the world. In fact it’s the group's largest factory in the world, and they say that it’s also their main hub in the baby food category.

A key player
The General Manager of Hero Southern Europe, Javier Uruñuela, explained, “Since the company was founded a hundred years ago, Hero Spain has become a key player in the group. We drive innovation and scientific development, and we have the group’s largest factory, supplying Spain and other countries around the world. In one year alone, we exported 25,000 kilos of fruit and vegetables.”

In Uruñuela's opinion, “this has only been possible thanks to the effort and the entrepreneurial spirit of the people who are or have been a part of Hero in Spain. Just as we boldly made the leap into baby foods in the eighties – and today we’re market leaders with Hero Baby – in the future, we’ll continue to innovate, identifying new business opportunities that will allow us to grow, both in the domestic market and in the neighbouring countries we supply from Spain.”

Commitment to the environment
Founded in Switzerland in 1886 and based in the canton of Lenzburg (in the picture), the Hero Group today is active in over thirty countries, and our products reach all five continents. On the occasion of their centenary in Spain, the firm has published a set of fourteen commitments, aspiring to ensure continued consumer confidence.

The aim is to be a company that is increasingly responsible and respectful of the environment in the areas around its facilities, while at the same time developing increasingly natural foodstuffs with clean labels. The focus is on employee well-being, supporting the local economy, being environmentally sustainable and standing by farmers, as well as maintaining product quality.

In this way, said Uruñuela, “we want to honour our legacy: Our one hundred years of experience and effort, the commitment and talent of our people and the trust that our consumers have placed in Hero to feed themselves and their families throughout our history. And we can think of no better way to do that than by committing ourselves to continue doing things just as well for the next hundred years.”

Photo: Hero