Our history

In 1909, Aquilina Gutiérrez Sánchez and Manuel Fernández González founded the bakery "El Horno San José". Those beginnings entailed a lot of sacrifice, as at that time all the bakery work was manual and the day began early in the morning and some days ended at midnight.

Thanks to the work, effort and perseverance of this family, the Horno San Jose bakery quickly achieved a daily production of 5,000 kilos of bread, which required 4,000 kilos of flour and which was distributed throughout the Besaya region with horse-drawn carts, until the 1950s, when they began to use delivery vans.

The Horno San José bakery became the most important bakery in Cantabria in terms of production volume.

Manuel died at the age of 54 and his wife, Aquilina, bravely took on the full weight of the business. Soon their son Manuel took over the bakery and María de los Ángeles, the eldest of the sisters, took over the confectionery business, which had been set up a few years earlier.

Soon after the Civil War, the bakery was taken over by the Popular Front to control the supply of the population in the Besaya area. Thanks to their entrepreneurial spirit and love of work, the Fernández Gutiérrez family, with their two eldest sons at the head, started up a confectionery business which, in the 1940s, moved into the manufacture of chocolates.

Gradually, the company expanded its business. It began to manufacture Gallo soup pasta and also to distribute Gallina Blanca products.

QUALITY

The commitment to quality is one of the characteristics that has defined our family business in its more than 100 years of life, due to our commitment to the best raw materials and the careful work carried out by our professionals, who achieve the perfect finish in each product.

We carry out a demanding process of selection of raw materials, which makes us always go for the best products on the market. We use milk from Cantabria and the best cocoa in the world to achieve the result our customers are looking for.

Our artisan way of working is another of our differences. Our team pampers each product in each of the manufacturing processes to ensure supreme quality.

Innovation is another characteristic of our company. Our facilities are equipped with the latest innovations, which allow us to be more efficient and respond to the new needs of the market.

location

From its beginnings in the early years of the 20th century to the present day, the history of Horno San José S.A. Industrias de Alimentación y Hostelería has been strongly linked to the Besaya region.

Mrs. Aquilina and Mr. Manuel took the first steps to promote a flourishing company in the food industry with the foundation of a small bakery in Torrelavega, at the junction of Argumosa and Joaquín Hoyos streets, which they named Horno San José. In a short time, the business grew fivefold, with the establishment of other distribution points in the city and the region.

After the death of D. Manuel, Dña. Aquilina continued with the business and with the help of a lucky lottery win she bought a large estate between the streets Argumosa and Joaquín Hoyos which, almost completely, still belongs to the family.

With the misery of the post-war period and rationing, Dña Aquilina attended to the bread and pasta needs of many needy families who lacked economic resources.

After the civil war, Horno San José became the first family business in the sector in the region, and one of the leading companies in the north of Spain. They no longer produced just bread, but also cakes in an office opened in 1925 in nearby Calle Serafín Escalante, which was closed in 1975.

At present, the company maintains its centre of activity in the heart of the city, in Ramón y Cajal street, in the most commercial artery of Torrelavega, and has modern facilities in Santiago de Cartes.

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