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GENERIC DATA ON TRADITIONAL ANDALUSIAN PASTRY MAKING
If we understand by traditional pastry making the cakes and
pastries made from the genuine recipes of our towns and villages,
we can affirm that pastry-making is an important activity in
southern Spain, as it belongs to our christian-jewish-arab culture.
However, almost all of these recipes are limited to a regional or
local area, with very few cases of internationalisation or
nationalisation of products or companies. The sector is therefore
very fragmented. Only the factories in Estepa, Productos Matas,
Productos Mari Trini, El Zángano and Inés Rosales develop their
activities outside Andalusia, although the three first ones have a
seasonal working period (Christmas), and the last one makes
generic products. This way we can state that only Inés Rosales
makes products of andalusian roots which are sold nation-wide, and
it is beginning an internationalisation process now.
COMPANY HISTORY: FOUNDATION,
EVOLUTION...
Around 1915 Inés Rosales got a 25 pesetas loan from one of her
workers’ mother. She focused on one of the various recipes of the
‘aljarafe’ area in Seville, beginning to see the possibilities of
a product called ‘torta de aceite’ (crisp aniseed wafer fried in
oil).
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| From a small village
called Castilleja de la Cuesta, located a few kilometres from
Seville, she started to cook them in the market bakery oven, which
she borrowed at the end of every day, and used to sell them in ‘La
Pañoleta’ crossroads, and in the Córdoba railway station in
Seville, which no longer exists. Inés Rosales , helped by a number
of widows in her village who worked to get some money during these
difficult years, used to go down the Caracol slope which separates
Castilleja from Seville, with their baskets full of a product
known a little bit later as “the legitimate and reputable Inés
Rosales ‘tortas’”. |
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This way the
first manufactured pastry product to be marketed outside its
workshop came into reality. This is an essential fact which helps
to understand the importance that this product and its trademark
have in the historic memory of consumers, among other features.
Soon the bakery oven was too small. Inés bought the ‘Casa Chica’ (Small
House) in García Junco Street, where she installed the first oven
of her own. But soon it was small for production too. This
situation forced her to move to Calle Real, later to be named
Seville Street and General Franco Street, where she installed
first one oven and later three ovens of the moorish kind to meet
the demand of a ever bigger market. Train and carriage travellers
took the ‘tortas’ to their towns, so their fame began to spread
out. Castilleja de la Cuesta filled with aniseed and sesame scents,
two aromatic ingredients which give an unmistakable smell to the
facilities’ surroundings.
Unfortunately, Inés could not enjoy her success too much, as she
died in 1934 when she was 42 years old. She left a husband who was
not prepared for business, two small children, and a product which
was protected by her name. In fact, her name gave identity to the
product, as all the other similar products that appeared later in
time were identified by Inés Rosales’ torta.
The family business was then run by a brother of Inés. The Civil
War and the difficult rationing years passed by in Spain, but Inés
Rosales’s torta was a sweet prize during these bitter years. Many
stories have the apparently unimportant torta as a memory starting
point. From the wicker basket it passed on to the wood crate; from
nothing to the sulphurous paper wrapping where its name and the
phone number 30 was impressed; from individual selling to the half
dozen pack. |
| In the 60s, during a
period of economic prosperity, the process of economic development
of Europe and northern Spain forced many andalusians to begin a
huge migration towards Madrid, Bilbao, Barcelona, Germany, France,
and the rest of the continent. All these andalusians took Inés
Rosales with them far away from their native land. This is another
reason of its worth and permanence in consumers’ minds. Inés
Rosales was another passenger in the trains, and when the
emigrants settled down in their destinations, they asked for the
‘torta’ to stay with them. Stores started to sell them, so the
‘torta’ obtained new consumers. |
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The rest is easy to imagine. As it is a product with a high demand,
stores always have sold it regardless of their point of sales’
evolution (small shops, supermarkets or hypermarkets).
NOTE ON INÉS ROSALES
Inés Rosales was born in Castilleja de la Cuesta (Seville) in 1892
and died September 24th 1934. We do not know much of her childhood
and teenager years. We suppose this period of her life was not
much different from any other girl born in those years. About her
character, there remain the memories of those who met her, who say
she was a very respectable woman. Her work is the proof of the
great vision of the future she had, which was something special
for the time she lived and even more for a woman. She broke the
mould of the Spanish society of the beginning of the twentieth
century.CORPORATE
CULTURE AND WORK PHILOSOPHY
We maintain the business concept introduced by Inés Rosales from
the very beginning: to do business properly. Regardless of fashion
and high performance, customers’ fidelity, home-made production
and ingredients goodness have made of our trademark a symbol of
quality in its sector. It remains in consumers’ memories as a very
high quality product, with no competition and in the vanguard in
combining craft processes with the highest levels of quality and
technology.
Inés Rosales has been able to combine the most traditional
production processes with the most modern production techniques.
It has been able to reach a high quality standard combined with
the production needs of a market of over 50 million consumers. All
this has been stimulated by a marketing department which develops
constantly a continuous process of adaptation of sales and product
promotion techniques. In accordance with the competitive demands
of our sector, this department has made of the ‘torta’ a product
which is nowadays an image of quality and modernity in consumers’
minds. And this achievement has respected its traditional element.
Inés Rosales is at the moment leader in its segment, setting a
standard to be followed by its competition. The modifications
applied to our ‘torta’ packaging have been imitated by all our
competitors.
Inés Rosales is the company which takes the initiative in the
modifications of the present packaging. Competitors can only be
behind the innovations we make. At the begining of the 90s Inés
Rosales launched a new packaging system using the current ‘alveolus’,
which give a higher protection to our ‘tortas’. This system was
copied by the competition, but even so it has not been able to
reach our product’s quality standards. With the new packaging the
product has a more modern image. We have adapted to the national
market demands regarding a higher merchandise protection due to
present sales conditions on supermarkets’ shelves. These
conditions suppose a higher degree of manipulation and a longer
time of exposing the product to customers, who have the
possibility of handling the product and touching it before buying
it. But Inés Rosales did not stay just there. Once the competition
copied the packaging, international market demands forced the
company to develop a new packaging for export that guarantees
products durability. The company has added cardboard to its new
packaging, and it has achieved a better image and quality.
These are examples of the continuous evolution of our products.
Thanks to the aniseed wafers they have established in the minds of
consumers of all Spain.
RAW MATERIALS
Regarding the ‘torta’, its basic ingredient is olive oil. Wheat
flour, sugar, almonds and aromatic seeds are also part of its
recipe. The absence of additives and colourings shows us the
goodness of the recipe components.
In the other products we can find ingredients as toasted flour,
lard, sugar, cinnamon, eggs, cocoa and coconut.
PRESENT FACILITIES: BRIEF DESCRIPTION
The most important feature that makes Inés Rosales ‘tortas’
different is their home-made production, that is to say, they are
made by hand one by one. The expression home-made is not well used
nowadays and has lost prestige among consumers, but it must be our
best guarantee. Although that expression might be understood as a
synonym of primitive and not rigorous, that is not so in our
facilities. The production process is highly rationalised and we
meet all the sanitary standards through internal controls carried
out by our quality department. We have approved and established a
‘Hazard Analisys Critical Control Points ’ (HACCP), and
independent laboratories control the healthiness of our
ingredients and facilities. At present our products possess the
government´s quality certificate “Alimentos de Andalucía” (Andalusian
Food).
The production process starts with the reception of raw materials,
usually in bulk, which are examined afterwards by our laboratory.
The different recipes are composed and weighted with the help of
computer software. Their ingredients are introduced automatically
in the kneading machines where their final mixing takes place.
Last generation machinery measures out the adequate quantity of
dough for each product unit. Then, in the case of the ‘tortas’,
our workers’ careful hands form thin discs. After being sugared
they are placed on the oven for its cooking. Once they are cooked,
we proceed to a cooling process, and then our workers’ hands wrap
them in their packaging paper.
The other products have a higher industrial component in their
making and production, although they keep the traditional touch.
These products have adapted to industrial processes, and at the
same time they maintain their original recipes and ingredients
which make them unmistakable.
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Our company is located in a small town near the ‘aljarafe’ area in
Seville, and employs more than a hundred people. All this
highlights the importance that the human factor has in our company.
Our training effort is constant to achieve optimal productivity
levels. These must help us make a competitive product in the
international market, despite its home-made production and its
high costs. We see the future with hope because of the
possibilities of wealth that the opening of new markets would mean
for everyone.
In our other work areas we have highly qualified staff, especially
in the financial area, production, business support, logistics,
etc.
NATIONAL MARKET
We are national suppliers of the major chains of stores, which
means that we are present in the whole national market. Carrefour,
Promodes, El Corte Inglés, Auchan, Eroski....all of them trust our
product. Our presence includes all the retail outlets these chains
have all over Spain. Nevertheless, we have not left the smaller
supermarket channels and small stores that were the origin of our
expansion.
FUTURE
Our permanence of over a century in the market with the favourable
opinion of consumers, and with the confidence that we are doing
business properly, allows us to see into the future with great
optimism. We will carry on maintaining at a steady level our
fundamental values, and we will incorporate the products and
technology that will help us to continue generating wealth....
Contact:
Alexander Koch - Export Manager
Gestión de Pastelería S.L.
Grupo Ines Rosales
Polig. Ind. El Manchon s/n, E-41830 Huevar/ Sevilla
Tel: +34 954756427 - Fax: +34 954756335 -
export@inesrosales.com
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www.inesrosales.com |
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