Portuguese Quasi Pronti network comes to Brazil

SÃO PAULO-after 35 years of experience in retail, buying and selling food, Hugo Bethlem, who left in September to Vice President of Grupo Pão de Açúcar, now will sell the ready meal. From next week, begins operating in Brazil the first store of fast food network Quasi Pronti masses, of which he is a partner. Of Portuguese origin, the company is since 2001 in Europe. Has twenty stores in Portugal, eight in Romania and one in Spain. In 2012, the network won 6 million in Portugal. "I left the Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar) mainly because of the change of control of the company. I have always believed in the expansionary side and felt that the management of the Casino would be too restrictive and controller, "says Bethlem.
He says that during his career he had the good fortune of being a "corporate entrepreneur". When he started at Carrefour, the French network had just four stores in the country. When he entered the sugar loaf, the Group had sales of US $ 9 billion; Today sell $ 60 billion. "After helping to write several business stories, I decided to write my story."
The history of Bethlem began 30 years ago, when he met the Portuguese António Ribeiro Turf, which also worked in Carrefour and was an entrepreneur. After passing through the Sé Supermarkets and the Sugar Loaf (Pão de Açúcar), companies for which he worked, and the Bethlem McDonald? s, grass returned to Portugal because Brazil was a "Daredevil". Along with the brothers started the company Quasi Pronti.
Cycle
"It seems that the world is cyclical: Portugal today is in crisis and Brazil is the country of the future", says Bethlem. According to Enzo Donna, Director of ECD, the Food Service consultancy Quasi Pronti is already the second Portuguese network of fast food that arrives in Brazil. In 2011, the flintstones-H3, famous in Portugal, opened his first drive in the Brazilian market.
Since 2008, turf planned to bring a unit of Almost Pronti for the country. The break came in 2012 with the Bethlem output from the sugar loaf. Bethlem and formed a company in which they own 50%. Grass came with the brand and technology to prepare pasta in up to two minutes in the presence of the client. The other half of the company's investors. Are 13 people who, along with Bethlem, applied R $ 5 million of its own resources.
The money will be used in the opening of five stores in malls until February 2014. The first starts up next week in Ibirapuera Shopping Mall. Are already contracted shops in shopping Pátio Paulista and Aricanduva. The other two are being negotiated. When the five stores are working, the expectation is that Bill r $ 16 million in the first year of operation.
As the Bethlem company target is the new middle class with formal employment. This class has the benefits of food stamps, don't have time to make meals at home and avoids sandwich.
Menu
Will be three semi-ready menus, which include pasta, sauce, dessert and drink, for a price ranging between R $ 17,90 and R $ 19.90. "Our price is up on the ticket," says Bethlem. Donna, ECD, notes that the average spent on food court ranges between $ 20 and $ 23. In Spoleto, Quasi Pronti competitor, the value is around $ 23. Sought, the Spoleto is not expressed.
Bethlem points out that, despite the competitive price, the difference is the quality of the meal. For this, he went to get the proof of big brands, using the relationships built during years of retail supermarkets. The masses are of Barilla, the white sauce and the meat from Friboi. The information is the newspaper O Estado de s. Paulo.