Multinationals buy local brands

The consumer movement towards healthy products have led to concrete actions of large multinationals. Coca Cola, Ambev and Unilever are examples of food and beverage companies that have acquired smaller brands in Brazil that had been created to serve the customer worried about the impact of food on health. In the last two years, Ambev bought fluminense of the Well (juices), Coca-Cola acquired the Green Field mining (dairy) and Unilever was with mother earth (known, for example, by the oilseeds, as nuts).
Among large companies, the one that moved to change was Coca-Cola, which is no longer a soft drink company to offer a broad portfolio of drinks. This project began more than a decade ago, when the traditional giant American labels still grew a lot in Brazil, but I began to feel a pullback in markets such as the United States.
According to Rafael Prandini, chief marketing officer of new drinks for Coca-Cola Brazil, the company today offers soft drinks, water, tea, juice, Nectars and, more recently, milk and yogurt. "We are seeking options of healthiness in all items from our portfolio. In soft drinks, for example, there is great emphasis in drinks and in sugar and smaller packaging, to a moderate consumption ", exemplifies the Executive.
To mount the current portfolio, Coca-Cola made several acquisitions. The process was started by two companies-More juice and Del Valle and paranaense Junior Lion, owner of Matte Leão. These businesses are already incorporated into the structure of the group, but a more recent purchase of Green Field in April 2017-was maintained as a startup, an operation on the side. With the brand, coke entered the market of dairy products, with dedicated to strategy. "is a mining company that brought a culture supplement to the Corporation," said Prandini.
Structure. The strategy of maintaining a separate structure from the mother company in acquisitions of local companies is also being adopted by Ambev and Unilever. At the end of 2017, Unilever bought the mother earth, businessman Alexandre Borges, by little more than R $100 million, according to sources close to the deal. The multinational, which wouldn't give an interview for this story, has announced that Borges would follow in front of the business. It was the same way that Ambev had walked to buy the brand of juices, in April 2016.
Two years after spending part of the beverage giant, the operation of The Well is still in the hands of founder Mark Leta. Opened in 2007, The Well came up with the idea of getting to the shelves of the supermarkets taste of juices of Rio de Janeiro. The founder, now an Executive at Ambev, has the mission to expand the categories in addition to the juice. The company has already launched iced teas, coconut water and now venture for a new harvest: the drinks of vegetable origin, which are sought by vegans.
The new bet are items based on coconut milk. As Leta has carte blanche, The Well still allows test categories in the shelves of the supermarket. "We can test products and from the results, we can gain scale or just withdraw from the market," he explains.
Gradually, says the specialist Ricardo Klein brands, Top Brands, this movement of multinationals also "contaminates" smaller companies who want to adapt the portfolio. He says that companies like Wael (cookies) and St. Helena (known for products such as Paçoquita) are also reshaping products and testing new categories.