Draft:Avidesa


The present-day Ice Cream Factory Comaker facilities in Alzira, in the Province of Valencia, formerly part of Avidesa.

Avidesa was a Spanish food company and ice-cream brand based in Alzira, in the Province of Valencia, Spain. Founded in 1956 as Avícolas y Derivados by the Valencian industrialist Luis Suñer, it began as a poultry business and later became one of Spain's leading ice-cream manufacturers.[1][2]

Avidesa was widely known in Spain for its sports sponsorships and television advertising. Among the products most strongly associated with the brand were the Apolo vanilla ice cream and the cream-flavoured ice-cream sandwich, the latter of which continued to be marketed by Nestlé after the disappearance of the Avidesa brand.

After passing from the Suñer family to the BBV food subsidiary Conelsa and later to Nestlé in the mid-1990s, the Avidesa brand was withdrawn and production at the Alzira plant continued under the Camy brand.[3][4] In 2003 the facilities were acquired by Guillermo Lamsfus, Avidesa's last managing director, and reorganised as Ice Cream Factory Comaker, which later became a leading Spanish producer in the private-label ice-cream segment.[3][5][6]

History

1960s and 1970s

Avidesa emblem on one of the former Luis Suñer factory buildings in Alzira.

In addition to Cartonajes Suñer, Luis Suñer expanded into poultry farming and distribution for the national food market. On 26 June 1961, in the presence of Agriculture Minister Cirilo Cánovas, he inaugurated Avidesa's new Factory No. 1 on the El Respirall hill in Alzira.[7] The facilities were also visited by then-Prince Juan Carlos I. In its early years the company was devoted principally to poultry production.

Suñer's only son, Luis Suñer Picó, was appointed managing director of the factory when he had just turned twenty, but died suddenly in January 1964.[1] The ice cream, desserts and confectionery division was created in August of that year. Its success led Suñer to reorient the company progressively toward ice cream, gradually moving away from the poultry business in the 1980s. Together, Avidesa and Cartonajes Suñer became the core of a major industrial group. His business success had earlier brought him the Gold Medal for Labour in 1959 and the Commander's Cross of Agricultural Merit in 1964. In 1978 Luis Suñer was Spain's highest declared taxpayer, and his companies employed more than 2,000 people.[1][8]

1980s and 1990s

The early 1980s proved decisive for the company. In 1981 Luis Suñer was kidnapped from his Avidesa office by ETA.[8] His daughter María del Carmen Suñer Picó ran the company during the three months of his captivity. Although he returned to work after his release, his health was badly affected. Shortly afterwards, in October 1982, the Tous flood severely damaged the group's industries, and Avidesa's facilities were completely inundated. That same year Avidesa was the official ice-cream brand of the 1982 FIFA World Cup in Spain.

In 1989 Suñer's grandson Alberto Campos Suñer assumed leadership of the group and floated 30% of Avidesa on the stock market amid financing difficulties.[8][3] After Luis Suñer's death in 1990, María del Carmen Suñer Picó became chair of the board and Alberto Campos Suñer remained managing director.

In 1991 Conelsa, the food subsidiary of Banco Bilbao Vizcaya (BBV), now part of BBVA, launched a takeover bid for 75% of the company and appointed Guillermo Lamsfus as managing director.[3] Conelsa completed control in 1993 and delisted Avidesa. The company was also a sports sponsor, notably of the handball club Avidesa Alzira, which won the Copa del Rey de Balonmano in 1991–92 and the EHF Cup in 1993–94.

Avidesa later passed to Nestlé as part of Conelsa's sale of its ice-cream and frozen-food businesses in the mid-1990s.[3][2][4] Nestlé retained Guillermo Lamsfus as managing director. Within a few years the Avidesa brand was withdrawn in favour of Camy and Miko, and the Alzira plant began producing under the Camy label.[3][2]

Ice Cream Factory Comaker

In 2003 Guillermo Lamsfus acquired the Avidesa facilities from Nestlé and created a new company, Ice Cream Factory Comaker, devoted to manufacturing retailer own-label ice cream for major distribution chains such as Carrefour, Eroski, Alcampo and Caprabo.[3][9] Under the sale agreement, Nestlé became the new firm's main client for six years.[3] The new company took over the industrial facilities and more than 300 employees, and the plant underwent extensive modernisation.[3][9] Contemporary reports described the Alzira factory as one of the largest and most technologically advanced ice-cream plants in Europe.[5]

In September 2010 the private-equity firm Ibersuizas acquired an 83% stake in Ice Cream Factory Comaker, while keeping the existing management team under Lamsfus.[5] According to an archived company statement, the business later operated in Spain, France and Italy, sold to 19 countries on five continents, and had regained national leadership in output volume.[6]

Corporate names

Over the course of its history, Avidesa operated under several corporate names, including Avícolas y Derivados, Avidesa-Luis Suñer, S.A., and Compañía Avidesa, S.A.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c "Un empresario ejemplar". El País (in Spanish). 15 April 1981. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  2. ^ a b c Couceiro, Belén (12 February 2003). "Nestlé vende su filial española Avidesa". SWI swissinfo.ch (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Clemente, Joaquim (11 February 2003). "Nestlé vende la fábrica de helados de Avidesa, pero conserva la marca". Cinco Días (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  4. ^ a b "El origen de Nestlé y su historia". Nestlé España (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  5. ^ a b c "Economía/Empresas.- (Ampl.) Ibersuizas compra el 83% del fabricante de helados Ice Cream Factory, antigua Avidesa". elEconomista.es (in Spanish). 15 September 2010. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  6. ^ a b "Ice Cream Factory retoma el liderazgo del sector por volumen en fabricación de helados en España". Ice Cream Factory Comaker (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 10 November 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2015.
  7. ^ "Edición del viernes, 30 junio 1961, página 16". La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 30 June 1961. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  8. ^ a b c "El industrial Luis Suñer, secuestrado por ETA en 1981, fallece en Alzira a los 80 años". El País (in Spanish). 23 August 1990. Retrieved 30 March 2026.
  9. ^ a b Clemente, Joaquim (7 February 2005). "'Avidesa en su mejor época no fabricó tanto como nosotros'". Cinco Días (in Spanish). Retrieved 30 March 2026.

Further reading

  • de Alzira, Rafael; de Valldaura, Jorge; Parra, José María; Montagud, Bernardo (1987). Vieja Alzira. Galería Histórico-Artística de Cartonajes Suñer (in Spanish). Falla Colonia Ana Sanchis. ISBN 84-404-0476-X.
  • Rovira Marín, Alfonso (2005). Crónicas de un pueblo IV (in Spanish). Falla Camí Nou. p. 237.


Category:Ice cream brands Category:Food and drink companies of Spain Category:Defunct companies of Spain Category:Companies based in the Valencian Community Category:Food and drink companies established in 1956 Category:1956 establishments in Spain

References

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