Bauducco studies going public
Valor Econômico
Pandurata Alimentos, owner of the Bauducco brand, should break all its records this year. The annual earnings should amount to R$ 1.4 billion (US$ 777.8 million) until December, 31st, with a 14% growth compared to 2008. It is the biggest earnings in 57 years of foundation. "The company is at its best moment", says Paulo Cardamone, marketing officer of the company, founded in 1952 by Carlo Bauducco. Managed by his son, Luigi Bauducco and his grandson, Massimo Bauducco, Pandurata assesses the possibility of going public.
While it studies the possibility, Bauducco invests. The production this Christmas season should get to 50 million panettones - enough for all 191 million Brazilians to eat at least one slice of the delicacy whether they like it or not. In order to handle all this seasonal production (20% more than in 2008), the company invested R$ 60 million (US$ 33.3 million) in infrastructure and marketing - five times more than the total amount of 2008's Christmas season. Half of the R$ 60 million (US$ 33.3 million) set aside for this Christmas has been used in the purchase and importation of a giant piece of equipment capable of producing 210 thousand panettones a day from Italy. "The machine is already at full steam", says Cardamone. This year, the company, like other producers, advanced the already expected release of the first panettones coming out of the oven in two weeks.
With 65% of the volume and 76% of the income from the sales of the Christmas delicacy in the country, Bauducco, according to the officer, will be more aggressive than ever in order to assure the expansion of the segment in the country. R$ 20 million (US$ 11 million) will be used in the promotional and advertising actions of the season. The other R$ 10 million were aimed at the lease of distribution centers (besides the eight centers the company already has) and at the hiring of temporary workers. At this time of the year, the number of employees of the company (3 thousand people) practically doubles with the arrival of another 2.3 thousand temporary workers - 10% more than in 2008.
Today, the panettone gets to 45% of the Brazilian households, most of them concentrated in São Paulo and in the States of the South and Southeast of the country. But in the other regions, the habit of eating it has been growing thanks to the chocolate panettone - which Bauducco named chocottone.