Spisa Group (Aromáticas Vivas)

Corridor footprint

The Spisa Group grows and markets organic and conventional fresh herbs, potted and cut, for international retail and food-service customers. It is run from Spisa Holding AB in Hovås, south of Gothenburg. The group is part of Gavia Holdings, a family-owned investment company whose largest holdings are in construction and real estate, greenhouse cultivation and fresh herbs, financial services and e-commerce. Spisa’s own site lists operating companies in Sweden (Spisa Smaker, Påarp), the UK (Lincolnshire Herbs, which also handles central purchasing), Poland (Baziółka / Swedeponic Polska), the Czech Republic (Bylinky), Spain (Aroherbs, at Mercamadrid) and Kenya (Spisa Kenya). It also lists two Portuguese companies. Swedeponic Holding AB, an earlier group name, is registered with the Portuguese tax authority in Viana do Castelo under NIF 980417694.

The main Portuguese business is Aromáticas Vivas, Lda (NIF 509028128), whose glasshouses are in Carreço, on the coast north of Viana do Castelo. It has operated there since 2009 and bought its land and buildings outright in 2019. In 2021 Spisa acquired a further 20% stake, leaving the Swedish group and PAM O.P., a producer organisation of growers from Póvoa de Varzim, Barcelos and Vila do Conde, as the only shareholders. At the same time the company started a third expansion phase to lift capacity by about 30%. That phase added microgreens and edible flowers and aims to cut plastic from production and packaging. The company then had 62 permanent staff and supplied the Iberian market daily. It grew without chemical pesticides, breeding insects and other biological control agents in-house, and planned to export them to Spisa’s units in England, Sweden, Poland and the Czech Republic. In 2020 sales rose 17%, on more than 6 million pots and 2 million units of cut herbs. In May 2023 general manager Nuno Lomba announced a €1 million logistics building, due by the end of 2024, to move packing and offices out of the greenhouses. Together with vertical growing techniques developed in the group, it was set to take capacity to nearly 8 million pots a year. The second Portuguese company, Fresh Cut Lda (NIF 513016228), is based at Sítio da Campina in Luz de Tavira, in the Algarve.

Why this matters for the corridor

Aromáticas Vivas is one of the clearest cases of Nordic capital owning primary food production in Portugal. A Swedish group holds the majority of the country’s largest fresh-herb grower and runs it as part of a European network that shares technology, inputs and purchasing. The Portuguese operation serves Iberian supermarkets alongside the group’s Madrid sales company. It also feeds biological pest-control agents back to sister growers further north, so the flow runs both ways inside the group.

Recent activity

On 7 February 2026 Storm Marta destroyed a significant part of one of the company’s glass greenhouses, hitting its basil crop hardest. Losses were put at about €500,000. In June 2026 Aromáticas Vivas still won three medals at the 13th National Competition for Traditional Portuguese Aromatic Herbs, organised by CNEMA with Qualifica: gold for basil, gold for pennyroyal (poejo) and silver for rosemary. Basil is its main line, at about 1.7 million pots a year.

Sources: Spisa Group (group companies and addresses, Gavia Holdings; archived December 2025 copy); Agroportal, 10 March 2021 (20% stake, shareholders, staff, 2020 output, expansion); O Minho, 10 May 2023, citing ECO (81% stake, €1m logistics unit, capacity); O Minho, 27 June 2026 (storm losses, medals); nif.pt (NIFs 509028128, 513016228, 980417694). Fetched 23 October 2026.