With acquisitions, GRSA advances in cleaning and maintenance
Valor Econômico
GRSA, leader in the Brazilian market of collective meals, has just acquired two service companies: Clean Mall and FB facility, both of the São Paulo FB group. According to the President of GRSA, Eurico Varela, the businesses are part of the strategy of the company to triple its size within five years, which means reaching earnings from R$ 4 billion (US$ 2.29 billion) to $ 5 billion (US$ 2.86 billion). The company, which belongs to the British Group Compass, had net income of R$ 1.4 billion (US$ 800 million) in the fiscal year ended September 30. The Brazilian operation is currently between the seventh and eighth place in income in the list of 55 markets in which the multinational operates.
To meet this goal, Varela bets on a strong organic growth and in other acquisitions. The Executive does not reveal the value of the purchase of both companies of the FB Group. Together they earn R$ 90 million (US$ 51.4 million), and have 300 clients in the State of São Paulo and 5 thousand employees. Clean Mall is specialized in general and hospital cleaning and FB Facility in support services, such as building maintenance, reception, gardening, courier and unarmed security.
The incursion in the segment of corporate services is a trend of the companies of collective meals. The idea is to offer the client the possibility of centralizing a broad range of activities in a single supplier. In Brazil, rival companies such as French Sodexo have already been operating in this field for a long time. Last year, it was the time of Nutrin to close a partnership with the Minas Gerais group perfect, focused on cleaning and security. At GRSA, the participation of the segment in the earnings is still small, 7%, and it should grow to 12% in one year. The area represents 18% of the global earnings of Compass.
Since 2008, when Compass acquired the entirety of the capital of GRSA (50% belonged to the Accor Group), the company has been talking about expanding this segment with acquisitions. It was only now, however, that the first businesses took place. Besides possible purchases, the Executive expects to grow organically, taking advantage of the resumption of the economy. Only in the first half of this fiscal year - from October to March -, the company closed 195 new contracts and the expectation is to end the year with earnings of R$ 1.6 billion (US$ 914.3 million).