Navarra’s food group Agotzaina continues to grow and acquires Cárnicas Kiko of Orkoien
Headquartered in Arbizu, where it was founded in 1985, the agri-food company now employs 1,500 people in Spain and turns over more than 600 million euros
The Navarrese agri-food group Agotzaina, headquartered in Arbizu, continues to grow through plant acquisitions across the country. The latest deal signed was the purchase in June 2024 of Cárnicas Kiko, a company located in Orkoien that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2024 and had until now been in the hands of the second generation of owners. Its director until now, Álex Pemán, remains as a minority shareholder following the sale, while the remainder has passed to Agotzaina. Pemán is the only partner who carries over from the previous ownership.
Cárnicas Kiko supplies porcine meat products on a daily basis: fresh, frozen, fresh processed, cured, cooked and sliced. Its production is destined for the retail, wholesale and HoReCa (hotels, restaurants and cafés) channels, as Agotzaina announced in a press release on Thursday.
The company has its own cutting room and a cured, cooked and sliced products facility, and supplies both the domestic and international markets.
1,500 jobs
With this transaction, Agotzaina, which began operations in 1985, now employs 1,500 workers, of whom 50 are based at the Arbizu plant. Total turnover in 2023 (not including Cárnicas Kiko, whose sale was completed in 2024) exceeded 600 million euros. Agotzaina, with a presence throughout Spain, operates primarily in the poultry sector, covering eggs and broiler chickens.
In recent years, the company has diversified its activities to include pork cutting and processing, industrial bakery, cheeses, fruit and vegetables, as well as parapharmaceutical products based on egg protein. It operates more than 30 production sites across Spain and also trades under the brand name Bekoetxe.
In May 2024 Agotzaina entered the market for alternative and high-protein-concentration products
Agotzaina, active in the egg, egg products, meat and fresh produce markets, is strengthening its R&D&I policy with the aim of creating new products made from egg and all its components. This trend has, in its case, given rise to two new functional, high-protein-value product ranges.
In October 2023 it acquired CALIDAD PASCUAL’s liquid egg plant
Among Agotzaina‘s shareholders is Calidad Pascual as a minority partner — a Spanish family company engaged in the preparation and packaging of milk and dairy products, as well as other food products such as yoghurts, juices, soft drinks, liquid egg, omelettes, mineral water and soya beverages. Agotzaina, led by Albert Ramírez, acquired in 2023 Calidad Pascual’s processed egg products plant located in Aranda del Duero. The remaining ownership is distributed among various shareholders from Navarre and the rest of Spain.
In May 2023 it acquired organic egg producer Coccó in Titaguas (Valencia)
The Navarrese group Agotzaina, specialising in egg-derived products, acquired in May 2023 the Valencian company Iniciativas Agrícolas Ager, which is engaged in the production of organic and free-range eggs under the well-known brand Huevos Coccó.
The transaction, first reported by the specialist portal Alimarket and also recorded in the Mercantile Registry, means that Agotzaina has taken one hundred per cent of the capital of the firm headquartered in Titaguas (Valencia). Iniciativas Agrícolas Ager was established in 2012 and in the financial year ended March 2022 (the latest with published data) recorded a turnover of 4.9 million euros, with losses slightly in excess of 200,000 euros.
The Valencian company, with a workforce of 17 according to its annual report, has 30 hectares of land on which the birds can move freely, and also features shelters in which they can lay.
Agotzaina, with an annual turnover of around 300 million euros, is based in the Navarrese town of Arbizu. The company is dedicated to the manufacture of pasteurised liquid egg products. It has also diversified into the production of meat products and, more recently, into farming, providing the raw material for the manufacture of its traditional product.
At the start of 2023 it acquired the industrial properties, machinery and equipment of the insolvent company GRANJA CRUSVI
In 2023, prior to the insolvency of Industria Alimentaria Crusvi, the owners of the CRUSVI conglomerate carried out a transaction that resulted in the transfer of all assets belonging to Granja Crusvi. The latter transferred its industrial properties, machinery and equipment — valued at more than 10 million euros — to the Navarrese company Agotzaina, in exchange for a 1% stake in its capital.
In 2022 Agotzaina planned major investments to produce more than 75 tonnes of egg products per day
Among other actions, the Arbizu firm planned in 2022 to commission an additional pasteuriser, a new room for small-format product packaging and a further breaking line. Agotzaina is also a partner in the Life Eggschellence project, supported by the European Commission, whose objective is to study the feasibility of using calcium bicarbonate obtained from eggshell in ceramic tiles.
The Navarrese company Agotzaina, engaged in the manufacture and sale of pasteurised liquid egg products and in the marketing of meat products, decided to expand its production capacity. Specifically, the Arbizu-based firm, which operates under the commercial brand Bekoetxe, set itself the target of producing more than 75 tonnes per day at its egg product and derivatives processing plant.
Located on a total surface area of 14,000 square metres, the company houses its production plant and laboratory, administration and logistics services in an industrial building of 2,223 square metres. To meet the “significant” planned increase, as reported by Navarra Capital, Agotzaina plans to install an additional pasteuriser at its plant, as well as new liquid egg storage tanks. It is also considering installing a new room for small-format product packaging; commissioning a new breaking line; implementing a new shell management plan; a packaging waste prevention plan; and expanding the storm water, industrial wastewater and sewage drainage network. The aim is to “serve the new facilities”.
The Arbizu-based company, founded in 1985, manufactures its products from free-range, barn, organic and cage-reared eggs. Specifically, it markets whole pasteurised hen eggs in liquid format, with sugar or with salt, as well as pasteurised yolks and whites “in all their variants”. In addition, following the expansion of its business line, Agotzaina also trades in white and Iberian pork, for which it operates a cutting room and processing facility. The products leaving its plant, under the brand Bengoetxe, are directed at the agri-food industry and the hospitality and catering sector.
The egg products firm is a partner in the Life Eggschellence project, supported by the European Commission.
During the 2021 financial year, alongside twenty-two other firms from the Foral Community, Agotzaina appeared for the first time in Cepyme500, the list compiled annually by the Spanish Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (Cepyme). At the close of 2020, according to available data, the Navarrese company employed more than 50 people and recorded sales exceeding 213 million euros.
The egg products firm is currently a partner in the Life Eggschellence project — supported by the European Commission through the LIFE 2014–2020 Environment and Climate Action Programme — whose objective is to study the feasibility of using calcium bicarbonate obtained from eggshell in ceramic tiles.
As part of this initiative, Agotzaina installed a prototype built by the Castellón-based firm Maincer, which would enable the biological membrane to be separated from eggshell waste so that it could subsequently be used in the production of ceramic tiles. The Navarrese company, also responsible for supplying the raw material for the Life Eggschellence project, set itself the goal of leading the project’s replication strategy.
“Gazelle” company
Since the company was established at the Arbizu plant in 1985, growth has been progressive, leading this company to feature in all rankings of fast-growing companies in recent years, including those for so-called gazelle companies on account of the pace of their development. In 2016 it made the transition from a family business to a company with a professional management team. Building on its initial egg and egg products activity, it has progressively incorporated broiler chicken and other meat production (2017), farming (the first farm was acquired in 2018), industrial bakery (2019) and fresh fruit (2022).
Among its most recent acquisitions is the purchase of Industria Pastelera San Narciso (Inpanasa), in Girona, which produces and distributes bakery products. In this area it also operates El Quiteriano (Huesca) and Tuesta Bakery (Álava). Agotzaina also holds a stake in Royal Chef (Ciudad Real) and Tortillas a tu gusto (Ólvega).