Conservas Ramirez - Profile and History

Profile and History

From Vila Real de Santo António (VRSA) to Matosinhos, taking in the towns of Olhão, Albufeira, Setúbal and Peniche, the industrial and commercial activity of Ramirez is replete with significant milestones. As the first canned fished undertaking in the country, the VRSA plant is the cradle of the sector in Portugal. Applying the principle discovered by Nicholas Appert, and later drawn up into the theories of Pasteur, it revolutionised the concept of food conservation in Portugal. At the start of the last century exportation of products began and the first sardine steam ship was launched to sea, the Senhora da Encarnação.

In the 1930s one of the company partners was also a pioneer in the corporative organisation of the sector. And in the 1970s the easy-to-open cans were born, thanks to the obsessive quest to serve the customer better as professed by the current owner, Manuel Guerreiro Ramirez.

One hundred and fifty-six years of history, several million tonnes of cans, a compulsive family mission of knowledge, effort and perseverance. This is the portrait of Ramirez & Cia (Filhos), SA, which is today one of the rare fifth-generation family companies still going strong, having progressed and grown through dozens of revolutions, the fall of empires and two world wars.

With an average of 250 employees, it has plants in Leça da Palmeira and Peniche. It sells 40 millions cans/year and exports 45% of its production, commercialised under its own brands.