This business unit, which was incorporated within Group activities as from 1 January 2000, comprises the manufacture and distribution of biscuits and is undertaken principally in Spain and Portugal. The Group has production facilities in both these countries, where it distributes under the brand CUÉTARA, the leading biscuit brand in the Iberian market. Most of the products are made in Spain, the infrastructure in Portugal being devoted in the main to distribution, though there is a small production capacity there, too.

Iberian Market

The CUETARA brand first saw the light of day in Spain in 1951. By the mid 1960s it had become the leading Spanish biscuit brand in terms of sales, product range and product research, a position it has consolidated since that time.
A biscuit manufacturer in Portugal was acquired later making CUÉTARA, the leading Iberian biscuit brand, a position it has maintained ever since.
This leadership is based on continuous development of new products to satisfy the changing tastes and requirements of consumers in respect of those items SOS considers most important: health, good eating and convenience.
The R&D+i activities of the SOS Group in the biscuit division are not limited to launching new products to suit changing customer tastes. We also try to introduce lasting improvements to our products, both in presentation and in the ingredients employed, in the latter case with the emphasis firmly on health considerations. It was precisely in the course of this endeavour that the company achieved one of its greatest breakthroughs: the development and production of OLEOSAN for use in the manufacture of CUÉTARA biscuits.
One of the main advantages of OLEOSAN is the composition of its fatty acids, which are in each case more beneficial or less harmful than the maximum and minimum standards laid down by the World Health Organization. Moreover, it has very positive characteristics from a nutritional standpoint, for example: the absence of trans isomers and cholesterol; the high vitamin E content; and the fact that it conforms to all organoleptic standards (same taste, same smell, same colour). Lastly, it is highly stable, making it ideal for use in the manufacture of products like biscuits having a long shelf live. (For further information on OLESAN, check out our website www.cuetaraoleosan.com).

The foregoing confirms the strategy of the SOS Group of obtaining constant improvements in its product mix, with the emphasis falling always on the side of those products offering greater added value.

Rest of the world

A mention should be made of the opening in 2005 of a biscuit production line in the facility the Group possesses in Córdoba (Veracruz) in Mexico. The products are now being marketed in Mexico under the brand TOSTA RICA and in the United States, primarily for Hispanic consumers, under the brand CUÉTARA.

The excellent reception by Mexican consumers in the last twelve months generated an avalanche of demand which had to be covered initially from our facilities in Spain. The situation is now being corrected with the introduction of a new production line, currently under construction, with a third line planned for the medium term.