The La Aurora factory in Estepa (Seville) produces the traditional mantecados every year since the end of August that made it a reference brand in the Christmas sweets sector. But it does so as a concession to the memory of its founders, as a nostalgic whim to maintain the essence of the family business. Because 95% of their turnover no longer depends on the consumption of powders, puff pastries or coconut balls in the heat of a portal in Belén, but their clientele is now mainly in gyms and sports clubs, where their clients arrive daily. bars, gels and even energy gummies, champions of an extensive catalog of functional products.
In the I D i laboratory of La Aurora Intelligent Nutrition (AIN), almost 11,000 formulas have been developed, which they constantly explore with more than 5,000 ingredients to give their offer the versatility that the market demands: on a base of nuts (dates are valued upwards) the bar provides a high concentration of proteins, vitamin supplements, creatines, collagen or melatonin. In all its variables: halal, kosher, vegan or gluten-free.
The revolution in the AIN factory came in 2007 as a result of the visit that a distributor made to several companies in Estepa looking for a butter artisan who could manufacture a food product to increase sports performance that was beginning to be a trend in Spain from the US. After knocking on several doors, it was in La Aurora where he received the answer he was looking for.
Fernando Moreno, CEO (managing director) of AIN, embarked his team on a new production line that required an almost complete renovation of the original machinery and a well-equipped I D i laboratory in which to experiment with the formulas until fine-tuning the product. product. “At first the bars were a brick. But, little by little, the texture and palatability have improved,” he explains.
Today, around 200,000 bars leave La Aurora daily. Or 20,000 jars (half a kilo) of peanut butter, which is one of the products with the greatest growth in recent years. It manufactures mainly for third-party brands, to which it offers the finished and packaged product: “turnkey”.
Fernando Moreno is part of the third generation of a family business that his grandparents founded in a small workshop in Estepa in 1939. Before enrolling in the production of energy products, La Aurora had already tried to diversify the business to overcome one of the major problems of the sector: seasonality. To do this, they tried to specialize in the manufacture of muffins, tea cakes or chocolates. But that adventure did not go well because it was a sector with very consolidated producers. “Ours is a success story built on the occasional failure,” he explains. His recipe for making a business work is simple. “You see the opportunity, you get on the train and you try not to get off.”
Along with seasonality, another handicap for mantecado is the difficulty in finding markets outside of Spain. The cultural barrier slows down the expansion of such a Spanish product. Smart food has, however, broken that barrier and today AIN exports almost half of its production.
About 330 people work at the La Aurora factory. Nerea López, a Chemistry graduate with a master’s degree in Food Industry Technology, is the Head of Quality at AIN, responsible for developing rigorous protocols and ensuring their compliance. Her team, with 24 professionals, also ensures that the legislation of the countries to which it is exported is respected with scrupulous zeal.
In the AIN laboratories there are mainly chemists, but also biologists and computer programmers, who constantly update the codes that allow the technology to function with precision and who explore artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT to streamline many processes both in the marketing department as well as in the legal department.
Of the old machinery with which the shortbread was manufactured, only the enrober that pours the chocolate onto the bars, previously cut by high-precision blades that work using ultrasound, remains. Starting at the end of August, a production line is reserved for the production of traditional Polvorones. The production of Christmas sweets now barely accounts for 5% of AIN’s turnover, which this year exceeds a total of 27 million euros. When Fernando Moreno is asked why he continues making mantecados, even though his business has long since taken off in other directions, he puts his hand on his heart.
La Aurora refuses to completely break with its past without ceasing to look to the future, which, it assures, involves proteins from insects (they are already used) and, above all, those that can be extracted from fermentation processes.
AIN is part of the group of companies that make up the Estepa shortening sector, on which 2,000 direct and 2,500 indirect jobs depend, which produces 15 million kilos of sweets a year and which gives smell and economic pulse to a population of 12,700 inhabitants. in the Sierra Sur of Seville.
AIN’s links with the environment in which the firm has grown have become closer since last October with the creation of the La Aurora Foundation, which will introduce 2,200 kids from various educational centers to the rudiments of computer programming. of Estepa throughout this course. «It is not easy to attract talent to Estepa, because it is difficult for young people to come to live in a town located just over an hour from Seville. “That is why we believe that it is more interesting to train and retain the talent of the region, the native ones, and thus help avoid the depopulation of its towns.”