There are many companies that had to convert during the covid pandemic to survive. This is the case of UVE Solutions, dedicated to the development of digital tools to facilitate communication between food producers and the Horeca channel (hotels, restaurants and catering). “The producers were desperate with the closure of the premises, and we developed a digital market in order to put them in direct contact with the final consumer,” explains Mònica Rebollo, the operations manager of this new solution.
After seeing that the tool was popular, the owners of UVE Solutions created a separate company for this new business area: Som La Bomba. “We were always saying that we were the bomb and in the end it seemed fun to use the word bomb to name the company,” adds Rebollo.
They started in January 2021 with three producers and now there are about 55. Most of them are local producers dedicated to fresh food. They are foods in which quality and respect for the environment are rewarded, through ecological certifications and cardboard packaging instead of plastic, in some cases.
The purchase goes directly from the producer’s facilities to the customer’s home. To avoid the extra costs of shipping fresh products, Som La Bomba has reached an agreement with a cold transport company so that the rates are more competitive. The service is available throughout Catalonia, where the producers are also from.
Based in Manresa, in the same facilities as UVE Solutions, Som La Bomba closed 2021 with more than a thousand orders and a turnover of 71,000 euros, a figure that they plan to multiply by up to four this year. The buyers are both final consumers and companies in the Horeca channel.
Rebollo advances that they aspire to open a digital market for each autonomous community and that each of them will have producers from their area. “It’s a very scalable model,” he says. Currently, the company employs four people.
