Today we talk to Jon Tejedor, manager of Vizcaína de alimentación, which is part of the Sant Dalmai Group, manufacturers of cooked, cured meats and cheeses, and is responsible for the distribution of refrigerated food for Bizkaia and Cantabria in the horeca and traditional sector channels.
A family business with more than 60 years of history… How has it had to reinvent itself and adapt to an increasingly demanding public?
I imagine that in its day the main family germ arose, which currently remains, in a tiny store, in a small delicatessen, where they began to make cooked meats, sausages… from a ham or a shoulder. From there, they began to distribute them by van, and that is the development that has taken place, which has been increasing the range of products, mainly in the form of a range of products.
They started in Girona, in a small town, and now we are all over the peninsula through the different distributors we have. In addition to that, nowadays the company also has an important weight in the international export, taking product to India, all Europe, Asia, parts of Africa as well…
What types of products do you supply?
Our main strength is the cooked sausages in all its range: turkey, which is turkey breast, different cuts, etc.. We also work to a lesser extent with chicken.
The main product is the pork base: from a ham, with different types of lean percentages, which is what people often prioritize, that before there were two cooked hams, or york ham as we usually call it… But now people are looking for percentages of meat, of fat that it has or does not have… All this makes us have a wide range, and so we have ten references of what is, for example, york ham. This is given to you by the passage of time, evolution and demand in the street.
Apart from pork, I insist, bacon, pork shoulder, normal cooked shoulder, a multitude of products… we are talking about a range of more than 200 references.
From here, how do we get to certain places? Well, with a lot of work and a lot of effort, because even if it is only a photo, behind all that, anyone who is selling on the street, or any manager who is behind a nice or big account, knows everything that is behind it.
Jon Tejedor and Felipe Rebollo
How does one become a supplier to a Michelin-starred chef?
In the case of Jordi Cruz, it was my colleague, the manager of Barcelona, who, after a lot of work, time and effort, managed to get him to start using Sant Dalmai products in his catering group. Once they tasted our products, they saw that they fit and from there they have been introducing them in their premises. But I insist that there is a lot of work to have achieved this.
Consumers are increasingly concerned about health, looking for new formats. How does a family-owned company position itself in a market of major international players?
In addition to our 60 years of experience, our customers have always looked to us above all for quality and class. Because of the quality standards that our products maintain and because of their category. What do I mean by this? That we have never failed in product as such, that is, we have never had any problems, on the contrary, whoever buys from us, the success rate is usually very high.
What does this mean? It means that it repeats. Let’s imagine: we sell to a neighborhood delicatessen, to a traditional store. Once the product has been introduced, it is very rare for them to change, so this creates loyalty, both in the person who sells it to you and in the product. And if the product responds, everything is easier.
Besides this, what have we had to do? Well, adapting to the new times.
At the time, of course, everybody bought balls, all the shopkeepers, so to speak, bought ham balls, and now many people are demanding the format. You have to adapt the formats to the needs of the street, but that’s what the street tells you and puts you in your place.
Before, you would order 100 grams in bulk to take away, or 200, whatever it was. Now we have launched new vacuum-packed formats, packaged in inert gas, which you take home, it opens and closes perfectly and has a longer shelf life than if you bought it in bulk.
Where can we find your product?
This is one thing that differentiates us from many of our competitors, that we only work with traditional commerce, that is to say, neighborhood stores, local stores, or smaller butcher’s shops. We are not in large supermarkets, nor can we be found there at the moment. So, that’s why, in the neighborhood supermarket, in the supermarket in the city center, in the traditional butcher’s shop, in the traditional butcher’s shop… in this kind of stores, is where you can find our product.
We have been successful for years and it has paid off. In that sense, we believe in the traditional charcuterie. It is true that it is a sector that is declining, mainly due to generational change and market trends, which means that we have to adapt and introduce new formats and references to be able to reach more end consumers, but it is still an important point in our company.
