Letona S.A.

Our history

On February 10, 1925, Marc Viader i Bas, along with several merchants, founded Letona S.A. to guarantee the milk supply for their businesses. In 1931, the Viader family took over the management and radically reoriented the company, turning it into the city’s milk supplier.

The small scale: the premises at Carrer Pujades no. 5
  1. Initiations in Catalonia for the production and commercialization of yogurt, Kefir, pasteurized milk, sterilized milk, condensed milk, liquid cream, and others.
  2. Invention and first phase of manufacturing and commercialization of Cacaolat (600 units/day)
  3. First production of sterilized milk under the Letona brand, mainly in quarter-liter bottles.
  1. It was subject to three successive expansions following increases in production.
  2. After its small beginnings, it represents the subsequent consolidation of a large sector of sterilized milk in Catalonia.
  3. It marks the beginning and consolidation of pasteurized milk and other dairy derivatives officially as Central Lletera (Central Dairy).
  4. Great development and implementation of Cacaolat and Letona milk throughout Catalonia; they became consolidated as generic products, with strong campaigns for their promotion and establishment against strong competition.
  5. The Managing Director, from the beginning until 1964, was Joan Viader Roger, inventor of the Cacaolat product and brand.

    Subsequently, and until 1974, the majority company Viader S.A. appointed Josep Viader Berges, who had just qualified as a Doctor of Agricultural Engineering, as General Director, and Lluís Claudí Bosch, qualified in Dipl. E.O./I.Q.W. Dipl. O.G.E.I.N / I.N.I. – ESADE, as Deputy Director. Production increased exponentially.  

    In 1971, the company     Letona S.A. had, in addition to the associated ILASA-Madrid factory, five industrial plants located in Barcelona, Mollerussa, Almacelles, Ribes de Freser, and Santa Coloma de Farners. They managed to package 65,000,000 units annually. With the Catalan market consolidated, to continue expanding, national and international contacts were initiated for associations, among others, with the American multinational Beatrice Foods. And finally also with CLESA; the good relationship between the general directors Arturo Gil Pérez Andújar of Clesa and Josep Viader Berges of Letona, who had been classmates in agricultural engineering, facilitated the establishment of the mixed company UNILASA in 1971, although Viader S.A. retained ownership of CACAOLAT. Later, the shareholders of LETONA S.A. and Viader S.A., faithful to a family business and archaic mentality, chose to capitalize on very significant sales profits, prioritizing them over the continuation that would have meant new mortgages on their assets and the loss of the majority control they had exercised. Thus, they finally reached an agreement to sell LETONA S.A. and CACAOLAT to CLESA.