What Ebro Foods is and the scope examined
Ebro Foods, S.A. is a Spanish listed public limited company heading an international food group. Its tax identification number is A47412333 and it is registered in the Madrid Commercial Registry under sheet M-271855. The registered office is at Paseo de la Castellana, 20, Madrid. This profile uses the group’s consolidated accounts: its economic scale includes consolidated entities, with internal transactions eliminated.
The parent performs holding-company functions. Herba Ricemills, Riviana Foods, Tilda, Lustucru, Pastificio Lucio Garofalo and Bertagni are group companies or businesses with their own operations. Brillante, SOS and Garofalo also identify commercial brands; a brand does not by itself constitute another independent company whose revenue can be added separately.
Sources: Ebro Foods: legal identity and registered office · 2025 accounts: activities, origins and reporting scope · 2025 report: operating group companies.
From Ebro Puleva to a focus on rice and pasta
The group’s modern configuration stems from Azucarera Ebro Agrícolas absorbing Puleva on 1 January 2001, resulting in the name Ebro Puleva. The shareholders’ meeting of 1 June 2010 approved the name Ebro Foods. Its development combines business integrations, international expansion and divestment of dairy and sugar businesses, leading to its focus on rice and pasta.
The rice business has its own antecedents: Herba was founded in Spain in 1950. Elías Hernández Barrera was one of its co-founders and played a significant role in the group’s expansion, according to the corporate tribute published after his death in 2024. This history cannot be reduced to crediting one person with founding all the companies that eventually became part of Ebro.
Sources: 2025 accounts: activities, origins and reporting scope · Ebro: transformation and internationalisation · Rice and pasta businesses: origins and activities · Elías Hernández Barrera, a co-founder of Herba.
Shareholders and leadership, with dates
At 31 December 2025, disclosed voting rights included Corporación Financiera Alba, 14.522%; Damm, through Corporación Económica Delta, 11.733%; SEPI, through Alimentos y Aceites, 10.360%; Hercalianz Investing Group, 10.002%; and Grupo Tradifín, 8.587%. Indirect interests are not added again to those of their holding vehicles. The governance report for that year identifies no person or entity exercising control over Ebro.
Antonio Hernández Callejas serves as executive chairman and is described as chairman and CEO in the annual report. The board composition published on 3 June 2026 confirms his continuation, and the shareholders’ meeting on that date approved his reelection as an executive director. Demetrio Carceller Arce is listed as vice-chairman. SEPI’s shareholding does not by itself make the group a state-controlled enterprise.
Sources: Significant shareholders at 31 December 2025 · 2025 governance: no disclosed controlling shareholder · Board composition, June 2026 · Resolutions of the 3 June 2026 shareholders’ meeting · 2025 report: chairman and CEO.
How the business generates revenue
The business encompasses raw-material procurement, industrial processing, recipe development and sales. Ebro sells branded consumer products and supplies ingredients, bulk products and solutions for food service and other industries. This combination serves different needs, from dry rice to products ready to heat, filled fresh pasta and pasta specialities.
In the 2025 segment note, net external revenue was €2,327.267 million for rice, €672.431 million for fresh/premium pasta and €13.861 million for other businesses and adjustments. These amounts add up to consolidated revenue. Published divisional sales may include transactions between segments and require the corresponding eliminations.
Sources: Rice and pasta businesses: origins and activities · 2025 accounts: external revenue by business.
Recognisable brands and products
In rice, Brillante and SOS are present in Spain; Tilda is associated with basmati rice and microwave products, while Riviana markets specialities under brands such as RiceSelect. In pasta, Garofalo, Bertagni, Lustucru and Olivieri serve different markets and categories. The range combines traditional rice, cups and other ready-to-eat formats, premium dry pasta, fresh pasta and gnocchi.
The companies also research ingredients derived from cereals and pulses, as well as frozen products for food service. These are food activities: messages about convenience, nutrition or product quality do not by themselves demonstrate occupational-health outcomes in the factories.
Sources: Ebro Foods brands · 2025 report: operating group companies · Food research centres and projects in 2025 · Nine-month update, 28 October 2026 · Tilda: basmati rice and microwave products.
Industrial network and international reach
The 2025 annual report describes 78 facilities in 18 countries: 55 production plants, 15 offices and 8 warehouses. Production locations include Herba Ricemills sites in Seville and Valencia, Riviana in the United States, Garofalo in Gragnano and Bertagni in Italy, alongside operations in India, Thailand, Cambodia, Morocco and other markets. The number of facilities is not the number of factories.
This geographical spread involves organising prevention across different regulatory and operating environments. Plants process, cook, pack or store food, while the parent coordinates and supervises the group. The Madrid location of the registered office does not by itself describe the actual scope of the group’s industrial work.
Sources: 2025 network of plants, offices and warehouses · Prevention-system coverage and ISO 45001 at specific sites.
Revenue, operating result and profit in 2025
Revenue from contracts with customers amounted to €3,013.559 million, compared with €3,140.493 million in 2024. This is the turnover metric used in this profile. It excludes €29.482 million in other operating income, inventory changes, capitalised work and financial income.
Operating profit was €307.890 million. Consolidated profit for the year reached €230.579 million: €214.879 million attributable to the parent’s shareholders and €15.700 million to non-controlling interests. These measures differ from sales and from the adjusted EBITDA used in earnings communications. The revenue decline coincided with an increase in attributable profit from €207.867 million in 2024.
Sources: 2025 consolidated income statement.
Workforce: reporting bases that cannot be interchanged
The 2025 sustainability report presents 5,937 own employees and defines its calculation as an annual average on a full-time basis. It adds 917 people contracted through external agencies and presents a combined workforce of 6,854. Employees on the group’s payroll and people working outside that payroll are distinct categories.
The consolidated accounts, meanwhile, report an average of 6,753 employees and 6,586 at year-end. The documents examined provide no bridge reconciling these figures with the sustainability report. Each measure therefore retains its original label and source; the counts are neither combined nor used as an improvised denominator to recalculate accident rates.
Sources: 2025 sustainability: workforce and counting method · 2025 accounts: average and year-end employees.
Food research and digitalisation
The 2025 projects have specific locations and purposes: Lyon develops fresh pasta and gnocchi; Arcugnano works on double filling, dosing and process control; Moncada researches rice technology; and San José de la Rinconada develops prepared dishes and technical support in cereals. US centres study microwave products, thermal processes and shelf life; Wormer works on cereal and pulse ingredients.
The October 2026 update mentions new lines and an automated warehouse at Garofalo, as well as operational difficulties during the first-half implementation of SAP HANA that the company considers resolved. The report also identifies artificial intelligence as a cross-cutting industry trend, but does not document a preventive AI system with measured, attributable accident-reduction outcomes.
Sources: Food research centres and projects in 2025 · Nine-month update, 28 October 2026 · 2025 report: digitalisation and AI context.
Prevention responsibilities and coverage
Ebro states that all group companies and their plants have an occupational risk management and prevention system and that 100% of its workforce is covered. Implementation and initial oversight rest with each company’s Human Resources and health and safety managers. The corporate Communication, Social Responsibility and Sustainability area consolidates the information; the Audit, Control and Sustainability Committee supervises it.
The report identifies systems aligned with ISO 45001 at certain Herba Ricemills sites in Spain and Pastificio Lucio Garofalo sites in Italy. This reference does not establish universal certification of all plants. Local agreements may cover joint committees, worker representation in investigations and inspections, training, protective equipment and the right to refuse dangerous work under applicable rules.
Sources: Health and safety responsibilities and oversight · Prevention-system coverage and ISO 45001 at specific sites.
How preventive measures are described
The 2025 documentation describes job-specific training, reviews of incident causes, local corrective measures, equipment and facility improvements, and periodic medical checks. It includes psychosocial risk assessments addressing workload, stress and emotional wellbeing. Some companies have ergonomically adapted jobs and tasks to support the inclusion of people with disabilities.
The group also identifies difficulty recruiting maintenance and electromechanical specialists as an operating risk. This context matters for planning competence and equipment continuity. The sources examined provide neither a causal evaluation linking accident trends to a particular measure nor a plant-by-plant inventory of machinery guards or energy-isolation procedures.
Sources: 2025 workplace, psychosocial and corrective measures · Prevention-system coverage and ISO 45001 at specific sites · Table S1-14: accidents, frequency and occupational disease · Risk from shortages of maintenance specialists.
Accidents: more cases and a lower frequency rate
In 2025 there were 191 lost-time accidents involving own employees and 43 involving contracted and self-employed workers: 234 in total, compared with 204 in 2024. Table S1-14 reports frequencies of 16.89, 16.72 and 16.86, respectively, per million hours worked. It includes both accidents during work and commuting accidents; this definition affects any comparison with other companies.
The group reports zero fatalities from occupational injuries or diseases in its own workforce and among other non-employee workers operating at its facilities. It records 11 occupational diseases and 7,377 lost days among employees; the 2024 figures were 11 and 9,802. The report attributes the reduction in days to fewer long absences than in the previous year.
There is a presentation discrepancy: the 2024 own-employee frequency is 17.54 in the detailed table and 17.64 in the summary on page 115. The S1-14 series is retained with this qualification. Assessment requires case numbers, hours, severity and worker groups to be considered together; the figures do not show uniform improvement.
Sources: Table S1-14: accidents, frequency and occupational disease · Social summary: discrepancy in 2024 frequency.
Agricultural suppliers: audits and outstanding actions
Prevention also extends to supplier relationships. Ebro reports 99 social audits in 2025 covering 79 suppliers, mainly under the SMETA protocol, which includes labour standards and health and safety. Audits identified 536 non-conformities, with 48% reported corrected, and 61 critical non-conformities. An audit does not equal a unique supplier or the elimination of all its risks.
Each finding must be documented in a corrective action plan with deadlines and closure validation. The report describes climate-smart agriculture training in India and technical assistance for basmati growers. For 2025–2027 it plans to extend audit coverage and training programmes. The detailed findings are not fully comparable with 2024 because of changes in Sedex, and no specific central budget allocation is published for all these measures.
Sources: Supplier social audits and corrective action plans.
A contingency from the former dairy business
The 2010 sale of the dairy business left contractual guarantees relevant to Ebro. The 2025 accounts describe its potential responsibility for part of the penalty imposed on the former Puleva Food, now Industrias Lácteas de Granada. The 2019 decision set a fine of €10,269,557 for anticompetitive conduct in raw-milk procurement.
Spain’s National Court partially upheld the appeal on 13 February 2024: it found part of the period time-barred and ordered the fine to be recalculated, also taking account of the conduct established. The 2025 accounts report pending cassation appeals and retention of the provision. This is the position described in those accounts; the original amount is not presented as a final penalty against Ebro, and the former dairy business is not presented as a current group activity.
Sources: 2025 accounts: contingency from the divested dairy business · National Court: February 2024 Puleva judgment.
What the 2026 update adds
On 28 October 2026, the company reported acquiring US speciality business Best Rice during the quarter and purchasing a plant in Saint Charles, Missouri, associated with Bertagni. It expects local production there to begin progressively in 2027. The start is a forecast, while the acquisitions are described as completed in the announcement.
Revenue for the first nine months of 2026 was €2,223.9 million. This interim figure provides context, while the annual comparison in this profile continues to use the complete 2025 financial year. The new projects require the industrial scope and operational preparedness to be reviewed in future updates.
Sources: Nine-month update, 28 October 2026.
Useful lessons for health and safety
The case illustrates three practical issues: retaining prevention responsibility at each plant under group oversight; including contracted workers and suppliers without conflating their indicators; and checking definitions before comparing outcomes. More accidents alongside a lower frequency rate show why a single indicator can give an incomplete picture.
Food safety protects consumers, while occupational prevention protects the people who produce, maintain and distribute. Their systems are connected but need their own evidence. Technological adaptation and industrial expansion justify reviewing training, changes in work and worker participation, without assuming that process automation alone proves a preventive benefit.
Sources: Prevention-system coverage and ISO 45001 at specific sites · Table S1-14: accidents, frequency and occupational disease · Supplier social audits and corrective action plans · Nine-month update, 28 October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ebro Foods?
It is a Spanish listed food group headed by Ebro Foods, S.A., with its registered office in Madrid and businesses focused on rice, fresh pasta and premium pasta. [1]
Which brands are part of its activities?
Documented brands and businesses include Brillante, SOS, Tilda, RiceSelect, Garofalo, Bertagni, Lustucru and Olivieri. Commercial brands are distinguished from the companies operating them. [1]
How much revenue did Ebro Foods generate in 2025?
It recorded €3,013.559 million in consolidated revenue from contracts with customers. Other operating and financial income is not added to this figure. [1]
Do all its plants have ISO 45001 certification?
The 2025 report states that the entire workforce has preventive-system coverage, but identifies ISO 45001 alignment at particular sites. It does not provide evidence of universal group certification. [1]
How should its 2025 accidents be interpreted?
The table records 191 lost-time accidents involving employees and 43 involving contracted/self-employed workers, including commuting accidents. Frequency is expressed per million hours; more cases and a lower frequency must be read together. [1]
Was the new US plant already producing in 2025?
The October 2026 announcement describes the purchase of the Saint Charles plant and forecasts a progressive production start in 2027. That forecast is not included as production achieved in 2025. [1]
