It started with a cafeteria in Valencia in 2013 and is currently one of the organized restoration projects with the greatest projection and volume of growth in Spain. This is the Saona group, created by the Valencian businessman Gonzalo Calvo, who wanted to give himself a chance in the kitchen after a crisis that took him out of the real estate sector. Barely ten years after that bet, which started in Valencia, the group today has 58 of its own restaurants and a turnover of 70 million euros, although its forecasts are to end the year with 60 restaurants and exceed 130 million in turnover by 2025. To achieve this, they have an ambitious expansion plan in which Catalonia, where they have nine stores, represents an important part.
“In Barcelona we have the restaurant with the highest turnover of the entire group,” acknowledges Eduardo Céspedes, CEO of the Saona group, referring to Saona Aribau, “and we have just opened our fourth location, Can Segalar.” There are plans to open a fifth before the end of the year on the right side of Eixample, as well as several more projects in the rest of the Spanish territory.
Quality Mediterranean cuisine at affordable prices has from the beginning been the flag that the group has wanted to fly from Valencia and export to the rest of Spain. But it was not until 2018, with the entry of the Miura group – also a partner of the Tragaluz group, among others – that the business became professional. First they acquired 49% of the shares and are currently the majority partners, although Gonzalo Calvo still retains 15% of the business. This is how the Saona group has become a unique organized restaurant proposal within the restaurant scene in Spain, whose segment is dominated by pizza and hamburger franchises.
“The brand is now in a very sweet moment,” agrees Céspedes, who assures that the group will continue its expansion with its own stores, although they are working on opening franchises in the north of the Peninsula (Cantabria, Basque Country, Álava or Navarra) but the hand of an important restoration group whose name has not yet been revealed. They also have in mind entering airports, as Enrique Tomás’ ham sandwiches did in their day.
With 64% of the business concentrated in the community of Valencia, the Saona group’s kitchens serve between 18,000 and 19,000 meals a day at prices ranging between 11.95 and 12.95 euros. “The menu revolves around the menu and the key is the quality-price ratio, with which we attract a very wide audience, from young people to executives and families. We believe that the experience is very good and we are committed to the final feeling being that you have received more than what you paid for,” Céspedes summarizes. Around 1,500 employees are responsible for this every day. “We have triumphed because we have democratized gastronomy” –summed up its creator–. “We wanted to show the world that you don’t have to pay 40 euros to eat well.” And some of the key factors of Saona’s success are that the customer knows what he is going to pay before sitting down at the table and the wide variety of Mediterranean dishes from which he can choose.
