07/30/2008 17h00
Melitta turns 100 and plans to grow
Valor Econômico - 07/30/2008
"My grandmother was a person of very strong personality. She was always very correct and independent", told Thomas Bentz, international president of Melitta, the largest company in the production of paper filters and one of the greatest coffee roasters of the world, to
Valor yesterday. The Officer tells his grandmother was not of the type that used to bake cakes and make candy and always gathered everyone around the table. It was not because she didn't want to. She just didn't have the time. When she invented the coffee strainer, Melitta Bentz founded, in 1908, the German company that completes, this month, 100 years of existence. The company has been in Brazil for 40 years. A family management company, Melitta went from generation to generation and it should continue this way, according to Bentz. Bentz said the company, as well as his family, remains united. That means the coffee roaster does not intend to open its capital, at least not under the management of Bentz. With international sales of R$ 3.3 billion (US$ 1.71 billion) in 2007, the company may grow internationally by means of acquisitions, declared the officer. Bentz is in Brazil to celebrate the 100 years of foundation of the company. And the country is important because it represents 16% of the sales of the company and it is the second largest market of the company outside Germany. From Brazil, Melitta exports its products to the South American countries. According to Bernardo Wolfson, CEO of Melitta in Brazil, the company invested R$ 150 million (US$ 59.8 million) in the last five years, and the same rhythm of allocation of funds may occur in the next years. A great deal of the investments made by Melitta was used in the increase of the productive capacity of the two roasters of the group in the country - Avaré (SP) and Bom Jesus (RS) - and in the paper filter plant in Guaíba (RS), and in the development of new products. "We have conditions to increase one more work shift, without being required to make investments in a new plant", he said. Wolfson affirmed the company intends to make annual allocations of funds of R$ 10 million (US$ 6.25 million) for the increase of the capacity of the currently installed units of the group. The company has also started exporting green coffee to Germany and to other destinations.
