Pescaderías Coruñesas when Luis Lamigueiro was the owner (1911-1930)

Madrid 1911 King Alfonso XIII visits Pescaderías Coruñesas

The Capital Stock at the beginning was 200.000 pesetas (100.000 ptas. from D. Luis Lamigueiro and 100.000 ptas from Jové). The first store was located at Calle Recoletos.

The company’s assets are the following:

• Goods
• 4 steel ships (Viking, General Gordon, Sirius and Reina Victoria)
• Pescaderías came to have 17 stores in Madrid
• 1 salting factory in La Palloza
• 13 cooling wagons
• Several plots of land in Madrid
• Ice making machines
• 2 trucks

In a short time it becomes a vertically integrated company that:

• Owns naval warehouses
• Makes its own fishing nets
• Has working ice making factories at the ports where it operates
• Has its own fleet in Madrid
• Has its own fish salting factory
• Has refrigerated wagons
• Has vans to transport the fish

Pescaderías Coruñesas is one of the few companies in the history of Europe and in the fishing sector that was totally integrated before 1960. It was Luis Lamigueiro, at the helm of Pescaderías Coruñesas that introduced fresh fish in Madrid. The power of the company was such that it imposed the price of fish at Madrid’s Market.

1923 report by Dominguez

"…The prices that fish from La Coruña have today in Madrid are not exaggerated due to the influence the owner of Pescaderías Coruñesas has in the market, with its own fishing fleet, wagons for transportation and store distributed all over Madrid; with such resources, the prices can be reasonable making the other businesses of this sector in Madrid to align with them."

Pescaderías and boats

The horizontal expansion of the company begins with the acquisition of the company "Pesca y Navigación S.A".
7 ships are bought together with other assets for 1.500.000 ptas.
With this acquisition Pescaderías Coruñesas becomes the number one Spanish ship-owner in the number of vessels in operation. If in Spain there were a total of 45 vessels, after this acquisition Pescaderías Coruñesas owned 11 of them.

Capital Stock of Pescaderías Coruñesas. 1930s.

Pescaderías Coruñesas becomes a Public Limited Company.

Its Capital Stock: 10.000.000 ptas, (6.000.000 from Luis Lamigueiro and 4.000.000 through a public share offer). There came a period when the production processes of shipping companies registered continued growth and the price of fish in the markets decreased more and more, due to higher competition from the distribution subsector.

In the 1930s Pescaderías Coruñesas has liquidity problems.

Discover more images of the history of Pescaderías Coruñesas Visit our photo gallery.

Pescaderías Coruñesas’ Headquarters.

Luis Fragío Babío (1930-1956)

A Pescaderías Coruñesas Store. A 350 kilo tuna Evaristo García with the workforce of Pescaderías Coruñesas.

Luis Fragío Babío buys Pescaderías Coruñesas.
Norberto (senior) starts his professional life as a fishmonger at Pescaderías Coruñesas.
Luis Fragío Babío starts to sell off branches of Pescaderías Coruñesas.
Only one branch of Pescaderías Coruñesas remains in calle Recoletas 12. In 45 years the company is reduced to a fraction of itself.

Evaristo García Gómez (1956-Today)

Mr. Luis Fragío Babío proposes to Norberto García (senior) that he buys the calle Recoletos branch. This acquisition is risky as the level of sales is very low and they had to take on the whole workforce. Finally Evaristo´s family acquires Pescaderías Coruñesas.

At the age of 23, Evaristo takes charge of Pescaderías Coruñesas. His challenge is to make a company, with only 4 clients, work. Thanks to the dedication of the whole workforce the company turns a profit in 3 months.

Humility and hard work

• For us the client that comes for sardines and horse mackerel is as important as the one that comes for eels and lobsters.
• All clients must leave satisfied.
• Remove the word “no” from the company’s vocabulary, that way they are forced to have all classes of products and keep the clients happy.
• “We don’t ask anyone who they are or where they are from, we only want to serve them”.

A 350 kilo tuna

Ingenuity: The space they had was a problem. At Christmas they set up a table in the street and would place the fish in the most eye-catching way. With this idea Pescaderías Coruñesas becomes a typical Christmas scene of the Salamanca neighbourhood. People would visit just to see it. Once, a 350kg tuna was put on show.

Specialists in Fish and Shellfish

Pescaderías Coruñesas establishes itself in the front line for the sale of fish and shellfish nationally. It sets the standard for exportations.
Employees: In 1956 there were 8 workers, the 1980s there were 40, at present the workforce is made up of 100 people.

Opening hours: From 8:00 to 15:00 to the public. The afternoon was dedicated to the delivery to restaurants and hotels. At present the opening hours are Monday to Saturday from 8:00 to 15:00, and on Fridays and the eve of holidays also in the afternoon from 17:30 to 20:00.
In the first years delivery was done carrying baskets on shoulders. If they could they would take the tramway but very often they were not allowed on board. Today all deliveries are made in refrigerated vans.

Days closed: Only on Tuesday afternoons, New Year, Christmas, the 29th of June St. Peter’s day and the 18th of July.

Fish Transportation

At the beginning they received wooden boxes weighing 110kg. Today the packages arrive in polyester boxes of 20kg.
When shipments were made, they themselves made the wooden boxes, they filled them with fish, they transported them to the train station and they themselves would put them on board the train.
Shipments to other cities were done by train until 15 years ago when refrigerated trucks started to be used and the plane for delivery to the islands and abroad.

Pescaderías Coruñesas in Juan Montalvo, 14.

In the 1980s Pescaderías Coruñesas moves to nº 14 of Juan Montalvo Street. Today they remain at this address.

Pescaderías Coruñesas remains a reference in the fish sector thanks to the effort and continued adaptation to the times. And also to the respect for tradition, experience and efficient working practices that is obtained from being a family business that has worked in this sector for four generations. The first family link was Evaristo´s grandfather, Santiago Gómez Falagán, who was a “maragato” muleteer and the first member of the family that worked in this field.