The company
A family business, specialists in Italian fresh food
Italian fresh food since 2014. We choose the producers who make each speciality best and develop with them the recipe, the format and the pack the Spanish market asks for.
Who we are
Every reference starts as a conversation with the producer
We choose the Italian producer who makes each speciality best and sit down with them to settle the recipe, the point of ageing and the format the Spanish market asks for. Then we bring it to Barcelona in our own lorries.
Italian fresh food is our trade, but an aisle is not filled with Italy alone, or with cheese alone. We complete it with charcuterie, sauces and flour, and with specialists from the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Greece, always on the same principle: the producer who makes each reference best.
From our chilled platform in Montcada i Reixac we ship every week to large retailers, to foodservice and to specialist distributors across Spain, the Balearics and the Canaries.
Outside Spain we work to order. We have shipped to Latin America and we will look at any destination: by sea, by road or by air, depending on the product and the deadline.
We work under our own brands, under the customer’s brand and on developments made to order, because every retailer needs a different answer. That flexibility is what has made us grow every year since we started.
people on the team
Administration, logistics, sales, marketing and quality. The whole value chain under our own control.
Origin and track record
Spiga did not come from a business plan but from a gap in the market
Before Spiga
Twenty years of trade
Francesc López runs the commercial arm of a Spanish food company and then the Spanish subsidiary of one of the large Italian dairy groups. He learns the market from the inside.
2014
Spiga Impex is founded
It was his own customers who asked him to set the business up. It starts in a corner of a long-standing customer’s warehouse, in Ripollet.
The turn
From selling to answering for it
Customers ask to centralise their buying with a single supplier. Spiga takes on the stock, the financing and the risk, and starts answering for the whole product.
The breakthrough
Burrata with 28 days
Working with the producer, the shelf life of burrata is very nearly doubled. It stops being a niche product and reaches the shelves of the large retailers.
Today
A reference in Italian fresh food
Our own chilled platform, our own lorries from Italy, three own brands and a presence in large retail, foodservice and specialist distribution across Spain.
Every step was asked for by our customers. Several of the distributors who backed the start, when the company was still only a plan, still buy from us today.
The house in short
Five figures that explain how we work
+500Active references in the catalogue
See the catalogue2014Working with Italian fresh food since
12PDO and PGI denominations in range
5Countries of origin
0-4°CUnbroken cold chain
Our producers’ certifications
- BRC
- IFS
- FSSC 22000
- ISO 22000
- BRCGS
These certifications are held by the plants that produce for us, not by Spiga Impex.
Economic and financial information is provided on request to banks, credit insurers and trading partners.
Mission, vision and values
Where we are going and how we decide
Mission
To bring genuine Italian fresh food to the Iberian market in the best possible condition, and to help our customers build a profitable, distinctive category with it.
Vision
To be the reference supplier of Italian fresh food in Spain and Portugal, recognised by large retail and by restaurants alike for the quality of the product and the reliability of the service.
The six values of the house
Specialisation
We master one category instead of holding an endless catalogue.
Closeness
Direct dealing, with no layers in between, with customer and supplier alike.
Rigour
Every degree and every day of shelf life is controlled.
Honesty
We say what the product is and what it is not.
Flexibility
No two customers are the same, and no two answers are either.
Curiosity
We bring Italian trends over before the market asks for them.
That a product made fifteen hundred kilometres away reaches the customer as if it had been made here this same week.
The cheese market in Spain
Six forces moving the category
Cheese is now the number one dairy product
Around 770,000t a year and some €4,000M of household spending, 30% more than milk or yoghurt.
Imports are half the category
Spain brings in around 360,000t of cheese a year, close to half of what it eats. Imported cheese is not a niche.
Private label sets the pace
Spain leads Europe: 59% of fast-moving consumer goods units are already private label. It started on price and has stayed in the range.
Lactose free, from niche to category
Lactose-free cheese is growing at around 34% a year. One in four shoppers buys it, half of them without being intolerant.
Fresh leads and authenticity decides
Fresh cheese is the most eaten type in Spain, with mozzarella and mascarpone among the fastest growing.
Low everyday price and deal hunting
The everyday price decides where people shop and the promotion decides what lands in the basket.
Six trends and one winner: a genuine Italian fresh range with PDO and PGI, a lactose-free line, private label made by the specialist, and an everyday-price brand.
Let’s talk about your aisle
A family business: you talk to the decision maker. We answer within 24 working hours.