Season of mergers and acquisitions, strong in 2007, is not over yet
Valor Econômico - 01/24/2008
The market of foods is in open hunting season. In October, Perdigão purchased Eleva, the owner of the Avipal - poultry - and Elegê - milk brands. Before that, in June, it acquired the Claybon, Doriana and Delicata margarine brands from Unilever, which also sold Gradina - baked products and confectionery - to Bunge, in December. One month before that, Vigor - dairy products - was the target of slaughterhouse Bertin, which seeks to gain space over JBS Friboi that, on its turn, became the owner of Swift eight months ago. In order not to be left behind, Sadia announced this month the purchase of the Excelsior Alimentos - cold meats - and announced it is interested in Goiaves. In December Sadia already diversified when it purchased Big Foods - semifrozen breads. Little before that, in November, the Bimbo group - baked products -, acquired the Pastifício Laura and started the production of panettone, a specialty of Bauducco's, which has just entered into a partnership with the American Hershey - chocolate. A report from PricewaterhouseCoopers makes the role of the food industries clear regarding the mergers and acquisitions. In 2007 it was the sector that registered the greatest increase in the number of transactions in relation to the previous year: a leap of 64%, reaching 95 transactions last year, which awarded the foods the leadership among all sectors followed by Price (which includes retail, construction, auxiliary services, public services, and the chemical and petrochemical sectors). Extremely pulverized, the food sector is made up, in its majority, of family businesses, which have gained competitiveness in recent years facing the opening of the market, gaining relevant regional participation. From the 43 thousand companies that form the food industry, 85% are micro-enterprises. The nearly 200 groups which are members of the Abia (Brazilian Association of Food Industries) that gathers 1.7 thousand companies are responsible for 70% of the national production and 75% of the sales that, in 2007, reached R$ 230.7 billion (US$ 131.1 billion), according to the previous evaluation made by the association at the request of Valor. According to the Abia, the average sales of the member companies is around R$ 100 million (US$ 56.8 million).