The first GMcash in Lanzarote, located in the Playa Honda Industrial Estate (San Bartolomé), has a total area of 3,816 m2, of which 3,173 m2 are destined to the Sales Room, where customers, catering professionals and food businesses, can find more than 9,100 references, of which about 40% are from the Canary Islands.
Its dependencies are distributed in a fresh produce area (with more than 500 m2 of controlled temperature) for the sections of butchery, fruits and vegetables, dairy products, delicatessen and frozen products, and a Consumer Products Room where you can buy general food products, wines and spirits, soft drinks, drugstore and perfumery, bazaar and appliances and equipment for hospitality. The group's own brands, which it sells exclusively, allow savings of up to 37% in the shopping basket.
Grupo Miquel put into service, last year, the Ingenio Logistics Platform (Gran Canaria) and has inaugurated three GMcash centers: two in Tenerife, in Adeje and Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and one in Gran Canaria, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The distribution of the more than 9,000 references to these centers is carried out from the Logistics Platform that the company put into service last September. These four establishments together with the GMcash inaugurated today have involved an investment of 29 million euros and 158 new jobs.
In addition, Grupo Miquel will expand its presence in the Islands with franchised supermarkets under the "Suma" banner, which began its activity in the Canary Islands at the end of 2012, and which has 8 supermarkets open.
Grupo Miquel
With 100% national capital, Grupo Miquel is the first company in the wholesale food distribution sector in Spain, which, with a turnover of 1,000 million euros per year, focuses its wholesale activity through its line of 63 cash&carry "GMCash – Gros Mercat"; in sales to organized catering with the division "Miquel Food Service"; the line of Import and Export; wholesale sales to retailers, independent chains and distributors; and Grupo Miquel also has a chain of more than 500 franchised supermarkets with the banners "SPAR", except in the Canary Islands, and "Suma".
Opening Ceremony
"Last year, Grupo Miquel began its journey in the Canary Islands, with the commissioning of the Ingenio Logistics Platform and, since that moment, we have not stopped working to offer the best to all professionals in the hospitality, catering and food businesses." This is how Jordi Arredondo, regional director in the Canary Islands of Grupo Miquel, a leading company in wholesale food distribution in Spain, during the inauguration of the first GMcash Lanzarote located in the Playa Honda Industrial Estate, which has involved an investment of 7.3 million euros and the creation of 30 new jobs.
The opening ceremony was also attended by the mayor of San Bartolomé, María Dolorores Corujo Berriel; the Minister of Employment, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Francisca Luengo; the Island Director of the General State Administration, Juan Prats Melero, and the Minister of Industry, Commerce, Consumption and Energy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Rocío Arredondo Carmona, as well as the presence of businessmen, suppliers, customers, representations of the main business associations and political leaders.
The Minister of Employment, Industry and Commerce of the Government of the Canary Islands, Francisca Luengo, thanked Grupo Miquel for its investment in the Canary Islands and today in Lanzarote, pointing out that "I did not hesitate for a second to support this business idea that I have seen born from paper and that in record time, has become a benchmark for investment and job creation in the Canary Islands. It is very important the commitment to the Canary Islands that Grupo Miquel has made, which today alone has generated 30 jobs." She stressed that all the employees hired are from the Canary Islands and with training.
The Minister of Industry, Commerce, Consumption and Energy of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Rocío Arredondo Carmona, stressed that "the arrival to the Island of a company like Grupo Miquel represents an injection of competitiveness in the food sector. In addition to generating direct and indirect employment, the arrival to the island market of new product lines that will expand the range of options for the hospitality sector and small and medium-sized enterprises, will strengthen the supply connectivity of Lanzarote with the peninsular territory." The Minister pointed out that Lanzarote is the first non-capital island to have a GMcash center, in its expansion in the Canary Islands. "An implementation that is associated with other lines, such as Food Service and "Suma" supermarkets. Finally, she said that "this injection of competitiveness will very soon and positively influence the island economy, both business and industrial, as well as in the shopping basket."
The Island Director of the General State Administration, Juan Prats Melero, congratulated Grupo Miquel for its implementation in the third island of the Archipelago and highlighted the great variety of products offered by the GMcash catalog, especially from the Canary Islands, which are also marketed in the national and international market.
The mayor of San Bartolomé, María Dolores Corujo Berriel, thanked Grupo Miquel for its implementation in Playa Honda, which has gone from being a dormitory town and a transit area between the capital and the coast to becoming a Commercial and Industrial Park and an open commercial area. She ended by thanking Grupo Miquel that "in their arrival to Lanzarote they have made the best choice: to settle in Playa Honda."
In his speech, Jordi Arredondo, after thanking the authorities and guests for their presence, recalled that Grupo Miquel is celebrating this year the 90th anniversary of the start of its activity. "We are a serious and committed Company and our main value is the vocation of service to our customers and to offer the best quality at the best price." Arredondo explained that Grupo Miquel is a 100% family company that will bill close to 1,000 million euros.
Arredondo, in reference to the inauguration of the GMcash in Lanzarote, affirmed that this will be the beginning of a long and fruitful working relationship as a team, and "for this we are going to continue working hard to generate benefits for our clients, supporting the business fabric of the Canary Islands and generating economic activity that translates into employment and wealth."
The regional director of the company concluded by expressing his support for the Canary Islands industrialists, to whom Grupo Miquel gives the necessary support to their products and needs, and added that the Canary Islands is a great platform for the Peninsula and for the rest of the world, "through our Import department that this year will export, to different countries, about 30 million euros, mainly with the brand "Sabor Español" in which there are Canary Islands products."
