the basis of all Candy Glucose produced in the factory was kneaded in a paste-like consistency, dyes and essences were added with formulas that are usually kept secret in this sector, and different flavors emerged. The partially mechanized work included kneading, moulding, stamping and winding.
A Asturian Candies According to one of his former employees, Fermín Cuervo, orders are still coming in from foreign customers who were unaware that the factory was closed and their assets were still pending liquidation. In a normal year, most of the Three Kings regiments in Spain provided by the Gijón factory will not have candy for them or to launch.”Started working in September to produce 300,000 kilos before January 5th” points out José María Rodríguez, who was in charge of the firm where his father previously worked and later joined by his wife, for 38 years.
After the Christmas season last January, the businessman sold the machine to a company in Extremadura, and workers took to the streets to protest after the closure of a company whose business was based on eucalyptus candy. That the factory allocates three days a week to produce for the national market between 24 and 30 tons. “The best known were the eucalyptus caramel, cuba pound and filling.“, while pointing out Miguel Ángel Álvarez, another former factory worker, José Ramón Miranda, “the taste of what’s on sale now is no longer the same, because we used natural essences.”
Margarita Carril remembers making a special kind of product for the Christmas season: candies filled with nougat, almonds, pralines or apple pulp. Candies from this endangered company reached customers in Germany, England, Croatia, Portugal, France, USA and Israel as well as other countries; in the latter case, with the presence of a rabbi in the factory to bless the machinery and materials used, José Ramón Miranda remembers setting out some guidelines on how to produce in production.
“Our strong season was always Christmas because of the parades and chaos. We sold out nonstop,” explains José Ignacio Goutayer, one of the workers who joined the company after studying VET at Revillagigedo, where he worked with the training team. good relations with the founding family of the company. However, most staff engagements were through acquaintances of these company owners, who also used their own employees to attract new workers when they needed staff for a family business.
The company was founded in 1941 by the Otero family. The former owner, who oversees how things are going on the factory floor every day, is still referred to as “Don Miguel” by his former employees. Initially, the factory was located on Calle Infiesto, and the majority of its staff were responsible for all tasks except more demanding tasks such as kneading, where 50-pound dough blocks had to be transported. In 1990 the factory was moved to the Mora Garay industrial area, with the inclusion of some new machinery, including the relocation of machinery and a second line for the production of eucalyptus candies.
the company came to own Working with more than 60 workers and “three shifts”“But when it closed, there were 28 left. Their mass layoffs were approved last May as part of the company’s bankruptcy in April, and it is currently awaiting approval of the liquidation plan by the Gijón commercial court.
Former employees of the company attribute the sinking of the ship to the change of rudder. Another of the workers, Víctor García, remembers that when he was diagnosed with leukemia in the Otero family, generational change was not possible and that his son, who was called to take the reins, died as a result. In 2003, the company was transferred to the brothers Ismael and Evaristo Sierra Crespo, and three years later the company fell into the hands of the latter. José María Rodríguez recalls that eight years ago, “we managed to produce 14 tons of sugar a day.” “That was when we worked three shifts, delivering candy to supermarkets in Spain and Portugal,” he says.
Former employees of the company agree that it is feasible and that it is the conduct of the business that hinders its continuity. These included the fact that the machinery, condemned by the SOMA-FITAG-UGT union, was sold at a low price in January and the employment of workers was temporarily regulated while the candies were packaged individually. houses “and in blocks” point to workers. Union representative in Gijón, Robustiano Iglesias, points out that the La Asturiana brand is “not patented”, so any company can bring it back to market at any time.
Recent arrivals from La Asturiana have received small sums after years of the businessman accumulating debts with them. The luckiest were able to retire and some found other jobsThere are also unemployed workers over the age of 50. The company’s assets worth €1.97m await judge approval for its sale. Its liquidation will mark the bitter end of a historic company in which an industrial sector in Asturias, which suffered the loss of the Chupa Chups factory several years ago, will virtually disappear.