With nearly four decades of history, Mister Chippy has grown from a small family project in Sant Miquel into one of the island’s main distribution companies. Known for its commitment to quality, innovation and support for local agriculture, the company now supplies hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and private clients across Ibiza, Formentera and beyond. In this interview, Juan Tur, CEO of the company, shares the keys behind Mister Chippy’s success and its vision for the future.
- How has Mister Chippy evolved to become one of the island’s largest distributors?
Mister Chippy was founded in 1987 on the family estate in Sant Miquel with a highly innovative idea for the time: cultivating Ibizan potatoes and offering them peeled and cut for the hospitality and catering sector. To achieve this, we set up a small factory, the first of its kind on the island, dedicated to peeling and cutting potatoes. Today, this remains one of our star products.
Over the past 38 years, the company has grown steadily. We began working exclusively with potatoes and gradually incorporated new products. From a team of just four people, we now employ over one hundred staff.
Sa Feixa: Guarantee of Local Produce
- Sa Feixa, your brand for local products, highlights crops such as Ibiza’s red potato. Why is it so important for you to support and showcase Ibizan produce?
Mister Chippy was the first brand we registered. However, from the year 2000 we felt the need to create an identity more closely linked to local produce, and thus Sa Feixa was born.
For us, cultivating and promoting local produce is a priority. It is a way of keeping our roots and traditions alive. In recent decades, Ibiza’s population has doubled and millions of tourists visit each year. We are fortunate to have land, climate and water that allow us to produce food of far higher quality than what may arrive from outside. We do not want to be simple distributors; we want to be an active part of the production cycle and of the island’s agricultural future.
- How do you guarantee the quality and freshness of your products from the fields to the final customer?
All profits generated over these 38 years have been reinvested in cutting-edge technology to ensure maximum quality throughout the entire process. We rotate crops carefully, use modern agricultural machinery, operate advanced lines for cleaning, sorting and packaging, and have our own warehouses and cold storage. Final distribution is also carried out with the company’s refrigerated lorries, allowing us to control the entire chain and maintain product freshness until it reaches the customer.
A daily logistics challenge
- Logistics on an island is always a challenge. How do you manage to deliver daily to restaurants, shops and individuals without losing quality?
We provide an all-round service to each customer, not only with local produce but also with everything needed for the daily operation of a hotel, restaurant or supermarket. We have our own warehouse at Mercabarna, one of Europe’s most important markets. There we perform the first quality check of products arriving from the mainland. Anything that fails to meet our standards is rejected, ensuring it never reaches Ibiza.
Transport from the mainland is carried out with our own refrigerated trailer lorries, guaranteeing each product maintains its ideal temperature. Once on the island, storage and distribution are also managed with our fleet of refrigerated vehicles. By controlling the entire logistics process, we can guarantee both quality and punctuality.
Innovation and technology at the service of the customer
- What role do new technologies and innovation play in your day-to-day operations, both in the fields and in distribution?
Preserving traditions is essential, but so is incorporating the most advanced technology at every stage of the process. Today’s customer demands greater quality and food safety, and Ibiza’s tourism sector has evolved enormously. We have grown at the same pace.
Thanks to this commitment, we now enjoy the trust of the island’s leading hotel chains, restaurants and supermarkets in Ibiza and Formentera. In addition, we supply more than one hundred Eroski supermarkets in Mallorca every day.
- What criteria do you follow when selecting external suppliers and maintaining such a high level of quality?
I have always believed that, in order to offer excellence, you must look after both your customers and your suppliers. A good relationship with customers is impossible without reliable suppliers.
When incorporating a new supplier, we evaluate much more than price. Food safety, product quality, solvency and professionalism are decisive factors. From our side, we also offer commitment and reliability. Having exclusive top-level brands allows us to stand out and continue improving.
Sustainability and support for local producers
- Sustainability and support for local farmers are increasingly present in gastronomy. How does Mister Chippy address these challenges?
At Mister Chippy we are committed to sustainable agriculture, respectful of the environment and focused on local produce. We work directly with Ibizan farmers, promoting traditional crops and environmentally friendly techniques. In our facilities, we optimise water and energy use and minimise waste generated during production and distribution. We believe the future of gastronomy lies in valuing what we have close at hand and doing so responsibly.
Sustainability is a recurring theme in our day-to-day operations, considered right from the purchase of raw materials. We maintain constant contact with our regular packaging suppliers, who keep us informed of the latest market innovations and suggest more sustainable options for food packaging, without ever losing sight of the main objective: that our products retain their organoleptic properties and optimal hygiene standards. To reduce or replace waste generated by our activity, we have implemented a deposit, return and refund system (DRS) for packaging with our customers.
As for supporting farmers, thanks to our strong presence in the island’s agri-food sector we work with numerous local suppliers who provide us with a wide variety of seasonal produce, in addition to our own production. Mister Chippy acts as a unified sales channel for farmers on the island. They bring their goods to our facilities, where we handle storage in optimal refrigerated conditions, process the products when necessary and deliver them to final customers that individual farmers might not otherwise reach. This benefits both farmers, who gain an outlet for their produce, and consumers, who can access local products. Our customers are kept informed throughout the year of which seasonal local products are available.
More Iinformation about Mister Chippy
For further information, please contact the professional team at Mister Chippy by phone on (+34) 971 33 46 40 or by email at info@misterchippy.com.
