Today, the Minister of Economy, Industry and Employment, Marta Gastón, chaired the inauguration of the new Ascaso Bakery which has launched in the Huesca Logistics Platform (Plhus). “Today is a great day for the city,” she said during the ceremony, “both for the contribution of the plant to the consolidation of the public platform and for the emblematic nature of the growth of this company so linked to the Argonese capital.
Gastón has highlighted that on the one hand, “a new industry opens in Plhus platform,which since us in the Government have given it the final push, many businesses have had their eye on it.” “The Government of Aragon,which I’m a part of, has made a global commitment to enhance and bet on logistics as a strategic line of development for the Community and therefore the strengthening and launching of Plhus is a key objective”, added .
It is a two-storey building with a total area of 1680 square meters, equipped with state-of-the-art machinery to optimise the production of the beloved artisan creations from Ascaso Bakery as well as equipment to improve the distribution conditions of the company for its stores in Huesca, Zaragoza, Madrid, its online sales channel and other possible future markets.
On the second floor, an R&D&I laboratory and a multi-purpose room have been installed for courses, demonstrations, tastings and other activities, where the institutional act has been developed, along with the participation of the Mayor of Huesca, Luis Felipe, the vice president of the Provincial Council, Elisa Sancho, and the general director of the company, Vicente Ascaso.
The new workshop has meant a total investment of around two million euros. A little more than a year ago, during a visit to the site of the new workshop in Plhus, the councillor encouraged Vicente Ascaso and his daughter Sura, manager of the Zaragoza store, to request a Regional Incentives state grant that was then managed and defended by the Department of Economy before Madrid, and whose concession was communicated last February.
In total, the Regional Incentives support amounts to 18% of the eligible investment, and is 50% co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). In addition, the supplementary grant from the Government of Aragon has accounted for an additional 9%, so that the public funding of the project is up to 27% of the eligible amount.
During his speech, their very own Vicente Ascaso has affirmed the company’s future, that this year celebrates 127 years, using the strategic location of Plhus to improve the national distribution as much as international distribution of his products. “The location is unmatched as it is located on the Huesca-Zaragoza highway, 40 minutes from the Aragonese capital and 90 minutes from Lleida, which places the workshop in an agile logistic location, both in terms of connections with the centre of the Peninsula, as well as with the Mediterranean and the main cities of France.”
