Interview with the head of the firm Hnos. Fernández López in Mercamadrid, Manolo Lucas
Manolo Lucas is satisfied with the results of the first quarter. / ÓO
Oscar Ortega. Barcelona.
Manolo Lucas, head of Hnos. Fernández López at Mercamadrid, highlights the importance of offering fresh fruits and vegetables to the population. The firm considers it a fundamental value to promote healthy lifestyle habits and along these lines they have begun to develop the project called ‘Eat Healthy’ during the first part of the year.
Valencia Fruits. They started the year with their ‘Come Healthy’ project. What has motivated the development of this initiative?
Manolo Lucas. At Fernández we are convinced that promoting healthy lifestyle habits, and especially the benefits derived from the consumption of fruits and vegetables, is a fundamental part of our mission and a primary value within our sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) objectives. For this reason, we decided to create the ‘Eat Healthy’ campaign, within the communication project of the same name in Gruppo Orsero’s sustainability plan, to encourage and reward people who buy fruit and vegetables with a sustainable gift.
VF. What did this initiative consist of?
ML. The campaign consisted of the location of a counter, at a strategic point in each of the thirty retail markets in Madrid, Seville, Barcelona and Tarragona in which we were present and from where a promoter explained to the people who came to the market the importance to eat fruits and vegetables and distributed leaflets with information about the campaign.
All those people who bought fruit and/or vegetables at the market stalls and approached the counter were given a foldable gift bag. Previously, the fruit vendors in the markets had been informed of the campaign.
Boys and girls received a piece of fruit, usually banana or apple.
Between all the actions of the thirty municipal markets, we delivered 5,000 folding bags and distributed 10,000 leaflets, in addition to a considerable amount of bananas and apples.
VF. Brothers Fernández López It has been present in Mercamadrid since 2001. What has been its development over these years?
ML. We started with four sales positions in Nave B of the Central Market. Since then we have experienced significant growth and expansion, also incorporating more activity area in Madrid to offer greater and better service. In fact, the following year, in 2002, we acquired 5 refrigeration modules in the Beta 8 Warehouse and in 2018 we added one more position in our sales unit. We are a team of 25 people in the Mercamadrid delegation who go out every day to play the game with maximum professionalism and with a lot of passion for our work. We are very aware that with our work we offer health to consumers.
These data show that although Fernández’s main headquarters are in Barcelona, the company’s management was always very aware that it should have representation in Mercamadrid, a reference market for all of Spain and with a large volume of fresh produce marketing.
VF. The Asomafrut yearbook recognizes the career of Hnos. Fernández López…
ML. Asomafrut, the Association of Wholesale Entrepreneurs of the Central Fruit Market of Madrid, commemorated its 45th anniversary with the presentation of its yearbook, which includes the history and commitment of the wholesale companies in this market and, among them, Fernández.
From these pages I reiterate congratulations to all the people who have accompanied us during all these years in Mercamadrid and a special mention for my father, José Lucas, who instilled in me the values of effort and passion for work.
VF. Hnos. Fernández López has stops and facilities in different markets, what possibilities does this positioning open up?
ML. Indeed we have a presence in several central markets in Spain: Madrid, Barcelona, Lleida, Tarragona, Sabadell, Seville, Orihuela and Tenerife. In total we have more than 40 sales positions to serve the traditional market, a channel for us that is necessary and complementary to the organized distribution channel (chains and supermarkets). This multichannel positioning allows us to optimize all service and product possibilities to the maximum.
Along with this presence in the markets, we must add our structure of service platforms located in Barcelona, Seville, Alicante, Lleida and Tenerife, where we carry out storage, ripening, packaging and distribution activities, making us one of the companies with the greatest territorial presence. in Spain.
VF. How do you define Hnos. Fernández López?
ML. With more than forty-five years of experience in the sector, the company today is part of an international group (Gruppo Orsero) with presence in other countries such as Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, Mexico, Costa Rica and Colombia. Its wide range of products and services, its territorial deployment and its multichannel profile allow it to offer global solutions to all the needs of its customers and suppliers. The Global Fruit Service corporate concept responds to that spirit. We strive every day to offer an increasingly complete and competitive service. Our goal is to become a true platform of opportunities for clients and suppliers as well as for the professionals who are part of our project. We provide distribution and the product with the added value necessary to make its distribution more efficient, with the best conservation, strict quality controls, new marketing formats and the best response to all the challenges of daily activity.
VF. Regarding sales in Mercamadrid, how are they developing?
ML. We are satisfied with the behavior of sales in this first quarter, which have been quite good. At the beginning of the year the outlook was not so favorable, but we have finally recorded an improvement in our kilo volumes and billing. The market is increasingly demanding and changing. We must be attentive to consumer behaviors and adapt to them.
As for the early stone fruit campaign, its start is quite good. So far there has been a large production of kilos at optimal prices that, being attractive to the consumer, allow adequate returns for the field.
For the rest of the summer campaign, as long as the weather respects the harvest, a considerable amount of stone fruit production is expected.
VF. What objectives do they have?
ML. We continue the line we have set in recent years: to consolidate our multi-range product offering and our service to wholesale customers of the Mercamadrid Central Market. To achieve this, we strive every day to provide a closer and increasingly complete and competitive service and we analyze consumer trends to focus our new projects.
Access the interview on page 6 of the Mercamadrid dossier in the Valencia Fruits issue.
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