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The origins of the Solsona biscuit factory in Barcelona took place at the end of the 18th century. Society had the need to produce food so that embarked sailors could have food to replace bread in their meals.
The product, known as Sea Biscuits, should also have a nutritional level. This, which was initially intended as a food for sailors on their nautical voyages, as time passed, little by little, had to vary, since the factories that had been created did not obtain the sales quotas necessary to their survival.
The manufacturers were adapting to formats and shapes that were more attractive to customers on land and one of them, Pedro Solsona, obtained the first prototype that was the beginning of the manufacture of the current cookies.
Solsona had set up a chocolate and pastry business in Mataró, taking advantage of the boom in Barcelona after the Universal Exhibition of 1888. He decided to expand it by moving to Barcelona, ??where he set up his first factory on Aragón Street.
Years later the business continued to grow and moved to Bordeta Street. As it continued to grow, he built a new factory on Wad-Ras Street (today Josep Trueba) and Dos de Mayo Street (today Ávila Street), in the Poble Nou neighborhood, which was inaugurated on January 9, 1917.
Pedro Solsona, seeing the progression of the company in 1929, converted it into a public limited company. At that moment Galletas y Chocolates Solsona Ríos, S.A. was born.
In 1964, Galletas Solsona continued to grow and opened another new factory in the town of Martorell. A year later, the company launched a campaign that achieved extraordinary success with an ad that played on both radio and television promoting a new cookie.
The new cookie was called 222 and in the advertisement, which was soon known to viewers or listeners, it said: “222, the cookie that is ordered by its number 222.”
The 222 competed with the well-known “Mary” cookie, which had been created by the English following the wedding of the Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia and Prince Alfred, son of Queen Victoria.
The only difference at first glance was that the Marías cookies were round and cookie 222 was a rectangular cookie and a little more toasted.
Subsequently, Galletas Solsona launched Kubala chocolate on the market in memory of the historic player and coach of the Barcelona Football Club. To create loyalty among children, Solsona launched a collection of trading cards at the same time as the chocolate, which was a great success.
Another collection that was widely accepted, this one for older people, was one of stereoscopic photographs, under the name of The Beauties of Spain.
The great popularity achieved by the factory led, in the early 1970s, to the German company Balshent, thinking about incorporating the factory into its multinational by making an offer to formalize its purchase for 500 million pesetas.
The Solsona Factory, which, at that time, had 480 workers and was at its greatest popularity, rejected the offer. The refusal to sell Galletas Solsona made the multinational, which wanted to establish itself in Spain, turn its gaze towards another nearby factory and clear competition from Galletas Solsona, which was also installed in the Poble Nou area and which was none other than Galletas Loste. .
The launch of the German factory did not take long to produce a drop in sales at Galletas Solsona, until, in 1977, it had to file for suspension of payments, which was not accepted because the company was already in bankruptcy.
An important part of the old building was saved from demolition, and a New Technologies Laboratory was installed on the premises.
