The first location of the Aloha Poké chain opened in Madrid in 2017, although its founders found the idea thousands of kilometers away, when they lived in Los Angeles. “There was a takeaway healthy food restaurant under our house and the truth is that it got us out of a lot of trouble,” explains Guillermo Fuente, general director of the company after the departure of his partner, Carlos Ortiz, in 2022. The two founders saw a business opportunity and decided to test the model in Spain by opening their first store in the capital of Madrid, although since then the model has been changing: “We currently have 34 stores of which 13 are owned and the rest franchised.” Although his intention, he explains, is to increase the former: “They give us greater profitability and not just a percentage of sales,” he explains.
In 2023 its turnover grew by 36%, to 13.6 million euros, partly thanks to the opening of six new stores. At the center of the Aloha Poké menu is a salad concept based on rice and fish, the poke, which can be customized by choosing from a series of ingredients that can be added to taste and whose average price is around 13 euros. The company’s business model involves linking the concept of fast food to healthy food and focusing it on those consumers who do not have much time but care about maintaining a healthy diet. “I love to cook, but many times I didn’t have time and it’s not easy to find alternatives. He poke It is a healthy, cheap, fast dish that you can personalize not only with your taste, but with your needs: if you are going to play sports and you want something light, if you are hungry and prefer something filling…” In 2023 they achieved a record: selling one million of these bowls in a single exercise, in addition to the other products they have on the menu.
Diversification
Although in order not to trust everything to the same product, in 2023 they decided to give their menu a twist and include other options, such as beagles and wraps, and a wider range of salads, always maintaining the possibility of customizing them, home delivery and options for vegetarians, gluten or lactose-free and sugar-free. In addition, they seek to expand their consumption ranges, with products also compatible with breakfasts and snacks that expand the type of consumers.
Until 2022, the last closed and audited financial year, profits were still conspicuous by their absence, something that does not worry the CEO excessively: “We have margin in cash flow, financing is flowing and the team has managed to get out of the crises that have occurred. I come. During the pandemic, their home delivery model helped them weather the storm and their sales figures even improved. With the global supply crisis, he explains, they learned to take measures to avoid stockouts. “Right now, we’re not worried about what’s coming,” he says.
And what is coming is a plan to grow in a market that increasingly pays more attention to product quality, sustainability and healthy food. “What we sell is a healthy lifestyle, we do workshops and collaborate with food associations.” By 2024, its intention is to continue opening its own stores, but also to improve the conditions to access its franchise and thus be able to establish itself in more areas of Spain. In addition, they intend to close this year with another 10 openings in which they will invest 1.8 million. With these actions, they expect their turnover to increase to 16 million euros. “We are very happy with the milestones achieved, each year the market is more saturated and achieving this is the result of constant teamwork,” concludes Fuente.
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