Bread baking industry in Malaga province expands thanks to almost 4m euros of dough from central government

Bread - the quintessential staple food - has become more sophisticated (and more expensive) in the last few years, more than what people could have imagined a decade ago. Nowadays, many consumers are willing to pay whatever it takes for a bread that is labelled 'gourmet', 'artisan', 'innovative' or 'viral'.

This bread craze is fuelling investments in the baking industry that needs to catch up and adapt to these new demands. The investment boom is evidenced by the latest batch of incentives granted by the central government in Spain to industrial projects in Malaga province: of the three subsidies granted, all are within the bread sector.

The projects that the government has decided to subsidise are El Brioche de Juanito SL - the new Juanito Baker factory in Malaga; Pan Piña SL, in Casares; and Morato Iberia SLU - the former Bimbo factory in Antequera. Between the three of them, have a total investment of more than 17 million euros, which will prompt the creation of 107 jobs. Of the total investment, the government will provide almost 3.9 million euros.

The largest of the three projects is the former Bimbo factory in Antequera, which, as of 2020, belongs to the Italian company Morato Group - one of the largest bread manufacturing groups in Europe. The Antequera factory has four decades of history. In the past few years, it has been immersed in expansion and modernisation of its facilities, with an investment of 13.2 million euros. It has a production area of 6,000 square metres, which houses three high-capacity lines where sliced bread, loaves of special breads and buns for hamburgers and hot dogs are made.

Juanito Baker is a growing emporium built by Axarquía entrepreneur Carlos Pérez. Although he started with a small bakery, he now has a factory in the La Huertecilla industrial area, with an investment of around 2.8 million euros and a subsidy of 745,000 euros. It has a daily production capacity of 150,000 items of its speciality: hamburger buns. According to the information provided by the government, the project involves the creation of 100 jobs.

Pan Piña is a family business founded in 1940 as a small bakery in Algatocín in the Serranía de Ronda. It is currently run by the third generation, who managed to modernise the business and give it international renown by devising a unique product: bread made with gold, which sells for around 3,700 euros per kilo. The company has built new production facilities in Casares, with a surface area of 4,000 square metres. It has been granted a subsidy of around 342,000 euros for an investment of just over 1,067,000 euros.