Business · Companies · 2 days ago
Menorca cheese maker recovers after workers take ownership
Queserías Menorca makes cheese portions, sliced cheese and grated cheese at its factory in Mahón, on the Spanish island of Menorca.
Its products include El Caserío, a familiar brand that helped the company become a major seller of cheese portions in Spain.
The business began in the 1930s, later became part of the US food group Kraft, and was nearly closed after Kraft moved production away from Mahón in 2007.
The Ruiz-Mateos family’s Nueva Rumasa took over in 2009, but the company’s managers say the new owners left it close to bankruptcy.
Employees then took ownership, and the company left insolvency proceedings in 2022.
In 2025, it made 3.4 million euros in profit and brought in more than 50 million euros in sales.
The company employs 155 people and collects about a third of Menorca’s milk, helping support the island’s dairy industry.
Queserías Menorca, the maker of El Caserío cheese portions, returned to profitability after its employees took ownership.
The company reported a profit of €3.4 million in 2025 and revenue of more than €50 million.
Its workers took ownership after the Ruiz-Mateos family’s Nueva Rumasa took over in 2009 and left the company close to bankruptcy.
In 2022, the company emerged from insolvency proceedings.
Based in Mahón, Menorca, Queserías Menorca has 155 employees and produces cheese portions, sliced cheese and grated cheese.
- Who
- Queserías Menorca and its employees.
- What
- The cheese maker recovered after workers took ownership; it reported a €3.4 million profit in 2025.
- When
- Workers took ownership after the company’s 2009 takeover by Nueva Rumasa. The company emerged from insolvency proceedings in 2022.
- Where
- Mahón, on the island of Menorca, Spain.
- Why
- Workers assumed ownership after the company was left close to bankruptcy.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
We are a valve regulating milk production
And sliced cheese, just as many
The Montañés family did not have a controlling majority and, as it was a very important offer, they had to give in and accept that the other partners wanted to sell
Queserías Menorca was founded.
Kraft offered to buy the company, which then had nearly 70% of Spain’s cheese-portion market.
Kraft decided to move production from Mahón to a factory in Namur, Belgium.
Nueva Rumasa took over the company.
The company emerged from insolvency proceedings.
Queserías Menorca made a profit of €3.4 million and recorded revenue of more than €50 million.
- Market share
- 60% of Spain’s market for cheese portions
- Employees
- 155
- Annual production
- More than 368 million cheese portions
- Milk collected
- One-third of the milk produced on Menorca
- 2025 profit
- €3.4 million
- 2025 revenue
- More than €50 million
Sources
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