Sebastià Triay buys La Payesa for more than 2 million and resumes cheese production

C.M / Ciutadella – The businessman Sebastià Triay Fayas has bought the La Payesa cheese factory, in Alaior, and resumed its production this Tuesday, under the new name of Quesos La Payesa Menorca. All this, after the previous owners stopped producing cheese on December 31. Sagitario Hotels and Son Granot 2021 SL signed the purchase and sale operation with Explotaciones Pons Marín SL on Saturday, which has finally been closed for a figure greater than 2 million euros, after two months of tough negotiations.

The Menorcan hotelier thus becomes the new owner of the machinery, facilities, buildings and cheese ripening warehouses of the historic company, created in the 1940s from a modest grocery store in Alaior. The new Quesos La Payesa Menorca company, which will be legally constituted this week, will be chaired by Triay Fayas and his wife, Antònia Amorós Salord.

The main objective of the acquisition is to prevent the factory's cheese stock from running out in order to supply customers and the brand from disappearing from the market. Starting this Tuesday, the new owners have resumed with this idea the production of cheese from the transformation of 20,000 liters of raw milk from the farms of the Sagitario Hotels group. The hotel company owns the properties of Son Tarí, Biniatzem, Son Tarí Vell, Son Marc and s'Aranjassa.

To begin with, the group will provide the milk produced by these last two sites. Apart from the five livestock farms of Sagitario Hotels, starting May 1, Quesos La Payesa Menorca will also supply milk from two other farms, which have been offered to the businessman.

In addition to producing cheese with raw cow's milk, as La Payesa did until now, in two weeks the new owners will begin to make a type of cheese that can be consumed in hotels and restaurants on the Islands. It will be cheese with pasteurized cow's milk, especially for the hospitality industry, and bar cheese for sandwiches. “The Balearic Government issued a decree that obliged us, hoteliers, to prepare 3% of our menus with local products. The percentage, in the case of our hotels, reaches 45%. 3% is little. We believe that it is the way we can help the countryside and ensure that the countryside can survive,” explains Triay Fayas.

Regarding the reasons that drove the acquisition of the factory, Triay Fayas explains to EL IRIS that “we could not allow an emblematic factory with 75 years of history like La Payesa to be lost. For us it is an illusion and also a new challenge.”