www.lux-review.com Page 39 LUXlife Food & Drink Awards 2022 Agrovillaserra S.L. is a multi-award-winning family business established in 1995 in the lands of La Mancha, specifically in Porzuna (Ciudad Real), a small village of about 4,000 inhabitants. The company creates the highest quality products in the form of artisan Manchego cheese and extra virgin olive oil by transforming raw materials offered by nature: Manchega sheep’s milk and olives. Agrovillaserra S.L. Best Manchego Cheese & Extra Virgin Olive Oil Marketing Company - Spain Sep22241 Nine people make up the multidisciplinary team at Agrovillaserra S.L., each of whom are dedicated to an array of duties that help the business succeed. The work is spread across the team, making it varied and exciting at the same time, and it includes tasks such as management of online sales, searching for new customers, improvement and optimisation of processes, customer service, and more. The team know their customers, too, with three main types: middle-aged people who are looking for quality products; small gourmet shops that want to offer high quality products; and importers that have been working with the business for more than 15 years due to the top quality and treatment provided. Belonging to the competitive agro-alimentary sector, with such high-quality products, means that Agrovillaserra S.L. needs to always be on alert, that is to say, never settling in and always being “hungry” for more – more knowledge, and more success. As a small company, it does not have the infrastructure of a large industrial corporation, but this allows the team to put all their senses into the process of making their cheeses and extra virgin olive oil, from collecting the milk or receiving the olives, to the maturing process of the cheeses or packaging of the oil. To obtain its extra virgin olive oil, there are several stages of the whole process, so the team must know how to take care of the olive trees (pruning, watering, etc.), handle the machinery for collection, control the transformation of the raw material in the oil press, and finish with its packaging. In other words, they must know the whole process, from the beginning to the final product. Industrial Design and Product Development Engineer, Antonio Villajos González comments, “For us, achieving excellence means working hard year after year, taking care of even the smallest detail in the production processes and never lowering our guard so that our products can continue to compete for the top positions in the gastronomic peak.” Not only does the business focus hard on its products, but its philosophy is to be able to contribute to the improvement and development of the Manchego area by giving the opportunity for personal and professional growth to its neighbours and people from nearby towns. To do this, it aims to transmit to its staff the culture of effort and passion for its origins and good work, enabling them to position themselves as a benchmark company in the area. Agrovillaserra S.L. may be a business located in a small village, but it has defied the odds in terms of its success, having won a total of 22 international awards for its products in the last two years. Until two years ago, the achievement of awards for the business has been sporadic, since the team was smaller and it did not have enough resources to manage the entries for the contests and to make products of its own. The main objective of Agrovillaserra S.L. is to be able to demonstrate to the world the quality of the products it has quietly been producing for so many years, giving this business the position it deserves. Antonio says, “This award is recognition of so many years of hard work and it has made us stop for a few minutes to contemplate the road we have travelled so far and to see that, fortunately, we are the ones who set our own limits.” Now, the business is looking to increase the number of establishments that have its cheeses and extra virgin olive oils in their range of products, both in Spain and abroad. The quality of its products and the treatment of customers (who end up becoming friends) makes them want to continue working with them. Antonio tells us, “We are aware of the difficulties that involved that building customer loyalty, but we are also aware of the quality of our products, the great team behind them, and the numerous international awards we have won in recent years show us that we are moving in the right direction.” On the other hand, the business believes that the immediate future of any company is digital transformation. It has been two years since the launch of its online shop, and every time a customer tells them about their satisfaction with an online purchase (high usability and short delivery time), the team feels that the effort, hard work, and hours dedicated to the creation of this online platform have paid off and were worth it. Therefore, Agrovillaserra S.L. is facing the imminent creation of a new specific job position for the management of social networks, online positioning, and development of a new website, among other duties. Company: Agrovillaserra S.L. Contact: Antonio Villajos González Email: [email protected] Website: www.villajos.es
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