Coffee, pastry and pasta and beverages on the target of Cosan Alimentos
Valor Econômico
It all started with sugar. But Cosan Alimentos, which as of April 1 ceases being a division of Cosan to become an independent company, should also go into snacks. And into beverages. And coffee. "We will operate in several segments", summarizes Colin Butterfield, President of the new company. To do that, besides investing in the sugar business, the new company is aiming at acquisitions in the food sector. "We have targeted many candidates", says the Executive, referring to companies being surveyed by the Division. Such candidates, he says, may be in the segment of coffees, pasta, cookies and fruit juices. "In the categories where it is not possible to get into organically, we will make acquisitions. Coffee, pasta and beverages are some of them", he says.
The Cosan Alimentos division, which last year processed 600 thousand tons of sugar, will work under a new company name and, at a first moment, it will be called Docelar Alimentos e Bebidas. The change in the corporate name and the turning into of the division into a company takes place as of April 1, when Cosan, the largest world producer of sugar and alcohol, and the British-Dutch Shell make their merger official. Docelar will continue belonging to the group that, with the merger, will be called Raízen. "That does not mean we will announce acquisitions right after April 1. But that is our goal throughout the year", said Butterfield.
The name Docelar, may also be changed. "We will sell salted products in the future. We may have to find another name", says the Executive. "What is certain is that we want to be a company of great brands, as it is the brand União. Our goal is the leadership or the second place, no less than the third place, in all the markets in which we operate", says the Executive. That was the reason at the beginning of the year Cosan Alimentos sold it morning line Da Barra to Savon, manufacturer of chocolate powder Palate, for R$ 25 million (US$ 14.7 million). "It was a very good line, but it was not fighting for the first places in the market", said Butterfield.
The same amount, R$ 25 million (US$ 14.7 million), is the investment of Cosan Alimentos for the promotion of the company sugar brands this year. The first product to receive the capital injection for advertising will be Açúcar União Light, whose R$ 6 million (US$ 3.53 million) campaign starts next week. "Besides ads in various media, we will have an action made through the Facebook, by means of which the consumer will be able to taste a sweet made with União Light at 15 bakeries in Rio and in São Paulo", explains Lucia Azevedo Bittar, marketing manager of Cosan Alimentos. The idea is to show that the product - a combination of sugar and sucralose - sweetens without tasting like sweetener, with half the calories of regular sugar. The idea is to make the União Light volume, which currently corresponds to 5% of the total produced by the company, get to 10% by the end of the year.
In the same line of sugars, Cosan intends to increase the presence of the União brand, with the launch of new products, until the end of the year, like syrups, toppings and fillings for cakes, cake mixtures and other dessert preparations. "The profitability of those more elaborate products - also including União Light therein - is three to four times greater than the regular refined sugar", explains Lucia.