Campofrío Food Group

José Luis Ballvé worked in a Seville slaughterhouse before becoming a traveling wool and hide buyer. His travels took him to Burgos and he decided to settle there, borrow 500€, and open a meat business. Ballvé handled the production side of the business and his partner, Romulo Fernando, handled the retail side. The two dissolved their partnership in 1952 so that Ballvé could start a complete meat packing operation on his own. He opened Campofrío Alimentación in Burgos in an abandoned slaughterhouse building. By 1960, Campofrio increased production by starting its own cured meat products.

In 1978, Ballvé decided to sell 50 percent of company to Beatrice Foods International, in which Campofrio wanted to expand outside Spain. In 1985 Pedro Ballvé takes over company after his father's death, before he went on to regain control of Campofrío from Beatrice Foods in 1987, and in 1988, Campofrío goes public on the Madrid Stock Exchange.

In 1990, Campofrío began an international expansion with a subsidiary in France, followed by an opening of a plant in Moscow. A year later, in 1991, Campofrío formed the CampoMoc joint venture with Mosmia Soprom in Russia, followed by the launching of a subsidiary in Portugal, then Campofrio formed a joint venture with San Miguel Corporation in the Philippines under the name San Miguel CampoCarne, and in 1993, Campofrio entered Argentina through the CampoAustral joint venture.

In 1995, Campofrio got an ISO 9002 accreditation in all of its plants. In 1997, Hormel Foods acquired 21 percent of Campofrío, but in 1998, Campofrio acquired the Tabco and Morliny brands in Romania and Poland respectively. In 1999, Campofrío acquired the Montagne Noire brand in France, where it acquired Delicass as it entered the Pâté and prepared delicatessen foods sector that was sold in 2002.

Campofrío acquired the majority of Omsa in 2000 and merged with Navidul to solidify Spanish market leadership. However in 2001, Campofrío announced they had to exit the Latin American and Asian markets to focus on European growth. In 2002, Campofrío created the Primayor brand to take over the former Campocarne subsidiary and integrate its Omsa and Navidul operations.

In 2003, Campofrío prepared to continue its European expansion through a series of acquisitions. Campofrío's new dominance of the European market encouraged the company to focus its future expansion efforts in Western and Eastern Europe, and in 2001, the company announced its intention to sell off its South American holdings. At the same time, Campofrío sold its share of the Philippine joint venture, San Miguel CampoCarne, to partner San Miguel Corporation.

By the end of 2003, Campofrío had completed its reorganization as a pan-European processed meat products company. The company's revenues now topped EUR 1.4 billion, and the company had succeeded in paying down much of the debt generated through the Omsa and Navidul acquisitions. Campofrío appeared in strong position to continue its international expansion into the new century.

In 2004 Smithfield Foods announced that they acquired 22.4% of the Campofrío Food Group. The Campofrio Food Group had finalized the partnership between Campofrío and Smithfield, in order to absorb the Smithfield brand into the Campofrío brand. Smithfield opened its European division with 6,500 employees in Paris. In 2011 Campofrío acquired the Italian sausage maker Cesare Fiorucci.

In May 2013, Smithfield Foods, Campofrio's principal stockholder, increased its share to 36.99%, after the latter was acquired by Shuanghui International Holdings of China for $7.100 million.

In November 2013, the Alfa Group of Mexico, along with Sigma Alimentos, took over 100% of Campofrio. Furthermore, more than 45% of its business came to the Ballvé family (12.4%), Oaktree (24.2%) and Caixabank (4.17%).[4]