Company

Company

Cascajares is the embodiment of an unwavering dream of two young Spanish promoters: Alfonso Jimenez and Francisco Iglesias. 18 years ago, these two young entrepreneurs, who were then just 20 and 21 years old, decided to pool their talents and create a company that would specialize in high end added value products. The company’s enterprising premise was to breathe new life into a traditional rural Spanish product: “The capon”. Thus began Cascajares initiative into selling its first capons and in no time, the company became a leader in its chosen niche. The concept was to offer a high end, semi-processed product, which would make a chef’s job in the kitchen just a little bit easier. Such an approach, namely, targeting hotels, restaurants and institutions (HRI) with a high end product was quite an innovation at the time. Cascajares thus positioned itself in the market based upon this concept: Queremos ser tu ayudante de cocina (we’d like to be your assistant cook). Over the years, the product line expanded in response to what the chefs would need.

Since its creation, the Spanish company has consistently increased its annual sales and this growth was given a significant boost when the future King and Queen d’Asturias chose the Cascajares capon as their main dish to celebrate their 2004 marriage. Currently, Cascajares sales are close to 6 million Euros annually and it directly employs some 50 people, 30% of whom have a physical or mental disability. The spanish company has also created a foundation to support local disabled people's organisations.

CascajaresSpain’s reputation has leaped across several borders and demand for many of its products was starting to grow across theAtlantic, as well. Given that national boundaries prohibit meat from Europe to access the American market, the two promoters began to think about establishing production facilities inNorth America. After several prospecting forays, they selected the City ofSaint-Hyacinthe, a small municipality numbering 80,000 inhabitants, located about 45km to the South of Montreal, to set up their first plant. Since then, Chef Brigade has been established and the project is starting to take shape. They are now producing more than 15 products and employing 17 people.