Petrópolis Brewery opens factory the size of 15 football fields

This Friday, 28, the Petrópolis Group, owner of brands such as Itaipava, Crystal, Lokal, Black Princess and Petra, inaugurates a new factory in the city of Uberaba, in Minas Gerais.
The unit is the company's largest manufacturing plant and the eighth unit of the Group, which already has breweries in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Bahia, Pernambuco and Mato Grosso. For the novelty, 1.2 billion reais were invested.
The new factory has 108,000 m² of built area, which is equivalent to about 15 football fields, in addition to 190,000 m² of grassy area. In all, there are 14 administrative buildings and 22 industrial buildings. The operation should generate 800 direct jobs and up to 3 000 indirect.
All beer produced by the Uberaba factory will be distributed to the cities of Minas Gerais and will support regions such as north and northwest of São Paulo, in addition to Goiás and the Federal District, for example.
Currently, Minas Gerais consumes 14% of all beer produced in the country." When we started to structure the plant, at the beginning of 2019, we had 8.1% market share in the state of Minas Gerais and we saw the place as important for the development of the company. This fact is proven months later with a market share of 9.5%," says Marcelo de Sá, director of controllership at Grupo Petrópolis.
When fully operational, the unit will have a production capacity of more than 8.6 million hectoliters of beer per year, that is, 860 million liters of the beverage, from four lines capable of the storage of 256,000 cans/hour and 140,000 bottles/hour. The factory is expected to be fully in use in November this year.
The company that makes about 15 billion reais a year expects to close 2020 without major losses. According to Sá, the scare happened with the drop in march revenues by 50% lower when compared to the same month last year, but already stabilized in June and July. "We realized that people didn't reduce volume consumption, but they left the bottles aside and prioritized the cans to drink at home," he says.
For the future, the executive states that there are no plans that can be detailed. "We need to understand the consumer's reaction to the return of bars and preferences between, for example, pure malt or other type of drink," says Sá.
The Uberaba unit has German technology. The equipment, for the most part, is from Krones, the world leader in the supply of beverage industries and allows to reach 3.3 liters of water use for each liter of beer. According to them, a result achieved only by breweries of high standard of production and international reference.
Of the total invested in the unit, 60% correspond to the equipment. In addition, the line can work with about 12 employees, while the less technological ones need, on average, 27 people.
"Investing in technology is important to sustainability the business, especially at an atypical time," says Sá. According to the executive, since the beginning of the pandemic, 2,500 employees have been turned off and currently there are 25,000 assets.
For the inauguration, the Petrópolis Group also invested in a waste management program aimed at the Circular Economy, and in the AMA Project – Environmental Mobilization Area, its Environmental Education Program – which will be carried out in schools, and will also permeate social and environmental actions with the community.