In 1944, Germán de Gracia began purchasing almonds in many towns, where he and his father, Feliciano, bougth and sold agricultural products.
Although, initially, he sold these almonds to buyers for cracking, Germán soon had more than 30 people helping him crack them while he sought out new supply areas and opened new markets for his sales.
In the late 1950s, he established the first almond shelling plant in the area. After several upgrades to the facility, in 1975, and seeing that the next generation wanted to continue the same activity, the facility was expanded to a new location.
In the late 1980s, Ángel de Gracia gave his name to this “almond tradition,” although he had already been managing the company under his father’s ownership for many years.
Shelling processes changed, and in the 1990s, the first electronic sorters were introduced, improving the process and product quality.
In 2003, the facility was moved to a new location, partially increasing the industry’s shelling capacity.
In the following years, the almond shelling process took a qualitative leap forward.
In 2011, Carlos de Gracia (third generation) founded COALCE, S.L., but because almond production in the area was not yet as significant as it is today, he considered it unfeasible to undertake the necessary investments to maintain a competitive facility in both process and quality, and decided to outsource the shelling activity.
In 2024, after several years of developing the project and due to the exponential growth in almond production in central Spain, with fairly high and stable minimum production levels, the third generation launched a new almond shelling facility, equipped with all the cutting-edge technology needed to produce a product with the quality demanded by the international market.