GARCÍA BAQUERO
Symbol of García Baquero
This work is a report based on an interview to someone who works in the secondary or tertiary sector. In this case the interview is to an industrial worker, so he works in the secondary sector. He is Xavi, the purchasing manager. He is responsible for sales of cheese both retail and wholesale. He started having a lower position in the factory. He works in the offices. He has been working there for five years. In these years he has improved the cheese sales and the García Baquero’s cheese market has increased.
This is the outside part of the factory
I couldn’t take photos of the industry, because I could cause problems with the manager. Their machines aren’t in the market, they have designed them so, they are very protected.
The industry that we are going to speak about is very famous. It is “Lácteas García Baquero”. The company is a medium enterprise, because it has between 150 and 250 workers. It is a private company, because it belongs to private people. It is a family industry with an only owner. A normal cheese we can see made by García Baquero.
It is a light industry or Consumer Goods Industry, because it produces goods that can be consumed directly, such as food. It was founded in 1963. The owner, that is still alive, started making cheese and going to the houses with a donkey and selling the cheese. When he saw it was a good business, he had the idea of creating a shop. After that, this shop became bigger. He has received different types of subsidies from the Ministry of Agriculture and Stockbreeding in the rural/industrial sector. All the workers in the industry are employees. There are different categories. The differences in salaries can vary on the 100%. Some workers can receive 1000€ and others 3000€, but always according to the stipulated salary in the collective agreement. They are very qualified, because they have worked there for a long period of time, so they are specialized in their area. There is a union that is represented in the workers council. It is an industry which is working every day of the week and every day of the year. The work schedule is divided into three working shifts: one shift from 6:00 to 14:00, the next one from 14:00 to 20:00 and the last one from 20:00 to 6:00. Offices work from 9:00 to 14:00 and from 16:00 to 19:00. The workers have twenty minutes to eat the sandwich. The office workers don’t have these 20 minutes, but it is stipulated by the law. They have 30 calendar days of holidays and they can also take 2 personal days off. There is a department to prevent the risks at work. This is to allow to everybody to have the necessary materials: boots, gloves, helmets… This
department is called EPI’S. There is a collective agreement between enterprise and workers. The process of production of cheese is the following: 1º First milk arrives in trucks. 2º Then, milk goes to cooling tanks. 3º The germs are killed in these tanks. 4º After that, milk is transformed in curd in other tanks. 5º This curd leaves the tanks and it is put into molds. 6º The mold goes to a room where it is pressed and the whey is taken out to obtain the compact cheese (as you see it ). 7º The same machine strips the cheese and sends it to the salting (there are several enormous swimming pools where cheeses are introduced to take the salt). It can be there one or two days depending on the variety of cheese. 8º Once it goes out from the salting pools, it goes to the healing cameras and, depending on the cheese we want to obtain, it has to stay there more or less time. Types of products of cheese.
9º At the end, it is packed depending on how the product is going to be sold: wedge, whole, sliced…)
This is a packing machine.
There are different types of cheese: soft cheese, semi-hard cheese, hard cheese or fresh cheese. Cheeses can be made with a mixture of different milks. The normal cheese of La Mancha is a cheese made only with sheep milk. The rest of the varieties of cheese are mixtures. There is also another type of cheese made only with goat’s milk. They are specialized in these types of cheese:
The basic and unique raw material is milk. Milk can be from sheep, cow or goat. It is supplied form particular stockbreeders but also from stockbreeders’ cooperatives. They use a lot of types of machines: a specific one to every process. These machines are very clean. This factor is strictly controlled by safety authorities and they can’t be dirty. García Baquero produces its own electricity. This electricity is transformed in steam to supply all the machines. They have a CHP with engines which have natural gas. With these engines they transform natural gas in energy for the machines operation. The majority of the costs are the raw material (milk). A 70% is used in the raw material, a 10% is used in the machines, a 10% the salaries and a 10% the rest. The milk price isn’t fixed. It depends on the season of the year. If it is summer, there is more milk, so the price is lower. In winter, there is very little milk, so the price is higher. It follows the law of supply and demand. Of course, it is profitable. The final price of a 3 kilo piece of cheese is more or less from 21€ to 60€ (but it depends on the type of the cheese). The profit margins are around 50%.
This map shows us the countries where they export their cheese.
These cheeses are sold nationwide and they are exported practically to all the world (they are exported to sixty-eight countries). Some of the important countries where they export their cheeses are: Germany, U.S.A, South America, and they have begun to export cheeses to the Chinese market. They are sold in big stores and supermarkets, such as Carrefour, Mercadona, Lidl…). It is a company that it is betting more and more for the exportation. This is due to the present situation of the Spanish market and at the same time they are manufacturing to more generic brands (in other words, the cheeses haven’t the García Baquero’s label ). They have calculated profits for the future. It is a company which is constantly evolving. The main problem of this industry is the raw material. It is only based in it, so if there isn’t enough milk, it could be a very important problem. This rarely happens. This is the only problem, because it is the 70% of the costs. Pictures credits: http://www.garciabaquero.com/familia.cfm?cdFamilia=9&Familia=Especialidades,
Yolanda Rubio Fernández 3º A.