Owner of Sufresh asks for judicial recovery

The Wow Nutrition industry and commerce, owner of Sufresh juice and Feel Good tea, filed for reorganization on Justice of São Paulo, to guard against two orders of bankruptcy. Applications for bankruptcy were made by Embanor companies packaging and Plastic Packaging industry and Farmaplast add up together, R $1 million. Sought, the company did not respond to a request for an interview to comment on the issue.
The company is the third largest ready-to-drink juices company in the country, with 7.9 percent of the market, according to Euromonitor International. It loses for Coca-Cola, with the brand name Del Valle (25.5% of sales), and Britvic, owner of the Maguary and Dafruta (9.9%). In tea, is the runner-up. The Feel Good brand represents 19.6% of sales of teas in the country, behind the Lion brand, Coca-Cola, which has 52.8%.
The filing for reorganization of Wow, made on Wednesday (15/6), considers the debt renegotiation of R $392,300,000. In 2016, the company already had a bankruptcy filing required by another supplier, the Centrosucar sugar Trade due to late payment. At the time, the company made a deal with the supplier to avoid bankruptcy.
But the situation is more difficult this year. Wow already has been through difficulties in recent years due to increased competition in the market of juices. The company came to dismiss 160 people in Caçapava (SP) last year to adjust the payroll to falling revenue. Beginning in 2017, the company fired 50 factory employees and other, earlier this month, cut more 31 slots at Toronto.
The plant employs around 700 people and is not producing juices from the beginning of the month. The company is the target of an investigation by the Secretaria da Fazenda do Estado de São Paulo, on account of a tax debt of R $89,000,000. The debt refers to debt declared of ICMS, tax substitution, enrolled in debt.
The Wow Nutrition is banned since March to issue invoices, but played under the protection of an injunction. The Attorney General of the State of São Paulo has submitted an appeal and obtained assent. Because of this, since the 1st of June, the Wow Nutrition is prohibited to sell food and beverages manufactured in Toronto. The ban prompted the company to halt production and puts at risk the jobs of 700 people in the unit, according to the Union of workers in Food industry.
In September last year, the Wow received a $ $40,000,000 contribution from the IFC (International Finance Corporation), the World Bank arm, being $ $25,000,000 as capital contribution and $ $15,000,000 of loans, with a maturity of five years. The resources, according to the company at the time, would be used to strengthen the case and modernize factories. In addition to the IFC, the company''s partners are the equity investment fund BFT (FIP BFT), the OEP Nutrition equity (the Group One Equity Partners), the Porto Novo and founding family Holdings (Edson Change, Maximilian Nikolaus Hermann and Ya Jen Chang Barrreto).
On Wednesday, judge Ana Leticia Oliveira dos Santos, of the 2nd Civil Court of the Foro de Caçapava, decided that the filing for reorganization were evaluated by the registry of the 1st Circuit Court of the District of Coquitlam, where one of the applications for bankruptcy of the company is currently being seen. The filing for reorganization in secret.
The most recent balance sheet released by the company was to 2015, in which registered a net revenue of R $405,500,000, R $48,500,000 net loss, and a net financial debt of R $224,200,000. The estimated revenue for the company in 2016 was of R $500,000,000.