When did the company start ?

Located in Bordères-sur-l’Echèze, near Tarbes, the company was founded in 1927. Run by my grandfather, Eugène Bonomelli, who came from Piedmont, at that time the company focused on slaughtering and producing cured, cooked and canned meats, up until the 1950s. In the 60s and 70s, the slaughtering and canning activity came to an end. After that, my father Louis ran the company with my uncle Alexander, and cured meats became the company’s specialty. About ten years later, most of the cooked production stopped. From the 1980s onwards, the company became wholly specialized in cured salted meats.
I joined the family business in 1987, after graduating from Toulouse Business School. At the time, my father and uncle still ran the company, which was having some problems due to a falloff in the clientele (local and regional butchers and delicatessens). The company had 45 employees and was doing a turnover of 20 million Francs. My job was to boost sales, revitalize our traditional regional clientele and develop clients in Paris and the Paris region…

How did it develop ?

The major turning point for the company came in the 1990s with the creation of the Bayonne ham cured for 12-months, from the white pig of the South-West, slaughtered at 8 months (Label Rouge in 1973, Conformity Certification in 1996, IGP in 1998). We had been the pioneers in salting and curing for 12 months. It was at Rungis that we started to grow, with our agent, Paul Legros, a well-known butcher. We managed to identify the company using the product’s Pyrenean aspect, because our production is linked to two remarkable “varieties”: the white pig from the south-west of Bayonne and the Noir de Bigorre pig for which a double AOC (ham and fresh meat) application had been filed. The other major challenge was to save the Noir de Bigorre pig. Cousin to the Iberico pata negra de bellota, this very old, pure breed of black pig, recognizable by its big, floppy ears, was an endangered species prior to its resurrection. Only 34 sows and 2 males were left by the 1980s, when Armand Touzanne, a technician from the Chambre d’Agriculture des Hautes-Pyrénées, saved the species with the help of INRA and ITP, through the pig breed preservation programme. Later the Consortium du Porc noir de Bigorre was set up, which I have chaired since 1995, and an association of 50 breeders was created. The Noir de Bigorre pig produces a unique meat, rare on the market. These pigs are raised to roam freely - 25 pigs per hectare – and are fed exclusively with grass, grazing pastures and GMO-free cereals (wheat, barley, triticales). The livestock pigs has 5,000 head and we produce 200 hams a week. Our company has pioneered, developed and marketed this remarkable product for twenty years. Like all the other breeders, we are partners in the Société du Porc Noir de Bigorre, which sells the fresh meat.

What are your productions ?

From the Bayonne white pig, we produce dry sausage, streaky bacon, pork belly and coppa ham. From the Noir de Bigorre pig, we produce ham, sausage, streaky bacon and coppa ham. Our products have a specific flavour, an authentic taste. So each of our sausages is made according to an original recipe, with a different grinding. With Bayonne white or Noir de Bigorre pork we look for three qualities: sweetness, softness and a long-lasting taste. We work as carefully as possible to meet customer satisfaction requirements.
We have two production entities: Salaisons Pyrénéennes (85 employees, cured meat products) and Fine Lame (40 employees), set up in 2001 and devoted to slicing and packaging Bayonne and Noir de Bigorre hams.
We sell Noir de Bigorre pork under our own Bonomelli brand and the rest under our other brand, Salaisons Pyrénéennes .

How is the cured meat market doing ?

It is a bit of a shame that many companies have lost the product culture, notably for hams, because it is important for a producer to be able to explain his product. In our company, we always try to share the culture of our products. The market is still quite stable, even growing slightly on clearly identified products, because the consumer is looking for quality. Actually, proposing high quality products is still the best way to build consumer loyalty…

What do you think of Rungis Market ?

I love this market for the atmosphere, the competent professionals, who know all about their products and keep their word. Business and relations are transparent and it’s fun to work there...