Vitacress on track for €45 million turnover in 2024

The freshly bagged salad and veg company Vitacress, part of the RAR Group, expects to close 2024 with a turnover of €45 million, up €5 million on 2023.

The company sells 15% of its produce overseas according to the Managing Director of Vitacress Portugal, Carlos Vicente in an interview with the online daily news source ECO.

According to Vicente, the company is looking to sell more abroad and increase its production area in order to grow in Spain and the UK.

He said that the company’s focus was the Portuguese market and was exporting excess product, particularly when there were limitations on productivity in the fields, and that there would only be sufficient productivity for both markets if they were outsourced.

Carlos Vicente added that export market growth in 2023 was less than in 2022, but that had more to do with the company’s priorities given the production problems that it faced in the first months of that year that forced it to seek partners.

Too much rain in Q1 of 2023 and the drought throughout the rest of the year, particularly in the Alentejo and Algarve regions, affected Vitacress production, hence the recourse to partners, something that has been in practice for some years.

Despite problems last year, the company managed to close 2023 with €40 million in sales with “very interesting results” particularly in the area of ready meals and aromatic herbs.

The company has grown by around 4% over the past four years and expects a growth in turnover of 8% in 2024 with 15% of its turnover from England, Spain and to a lesser extent from France and Germany.