Mercatto has 33% of Love to pieces

The Brazilian investment fund Mercatto acquired 33% of franchise network Love to pieces, becoming a partner in the operation through an injection of resources into the business, of undisclosed value, that will be applied to strengthen the pace of growth of the company, founded 30 years ago. Few stores franchise network have been opened and some old plans-like back to Rio de Janeiro-are still on paper, at a time when new pastries have occupied the market, especially the shopping malls, main square of Love to pieces.
To accommodate the entry of the Fund, the couple of Chaw and Armando Calarezi, partners with 50% of the company, and the other partner Silvana Marmonti, with the remaining 50%, reduced its participation in the control-Wilburn and Armando with 33% and Silvana, other 33%. A Board of directors should be created by the company in the first quarter, with five members, one of them being indicated by two independent members, Mercatto and the other two vacant to be occupied by female members.
The businesswoman Silvana says that with the investment, it will be possible to accelerate new occupation as Ceará, Rio Grande do Norte and Paraíba-and complete the investment of $ 5 million in a new factory in Cotia (SP). The unit opened in December, passing through small adjustments, has production capacity three times greater than the old drive, in Vila Olímpia, in the southern area of São Paulo, where the annual production reached up to 800 tonnes per year.
Until then, the company was in reach all Brazilian States until the end of 2017, reaching 160 stores. That goal became more aggressive: are 160 units until 2016 and 250 points within five years. The question, says partner, is that within the pace of expansion that was being registered, with shareholders ' equity, the company realized that the old goals would not be attained. "We were not able to grow at the pace we wanted," said Silvana. "There were two years of conversations [with Mercatto] and we were thinking of a model of society that made sense. We needed a partner to grow faster. "
The company will make the Food FUND, Mercatto Fund that has among its investments two businesses acquired in 2010: the Oven (Dairy Countess) whose participation reaches 29.3% of control, and the Villa Germania foods, the leading producer of duck meat, with 40% of the company. The entrance to the bottom in Love to pieces was made possible after an analysis of almost 700 food and beverage companies, evaluated by Mercatto over the past four years. "We chose carefully and we were patients to close the operation. Are not investors who appear from time to time in the company. We in the Council to follow closely, without interfering in the day to day management ", says Paulo Henrique Todaro, Managing Director of Mercatto Investments.
Considered one of the largest networks of candy franchises in the country, the Love to pieces has 60 units and r $ 56 million gross sales in 2012, 16% higher than the value calculated in 2011 (real growth of 10%). In March 2012, she totaled 60 units in operation, which indicates that there is an expansion in sales per square foot, since the store base is stable. Escalation of land prices in some squares, as in Rio de Janeiro, would have made the company holding some investments, at a time when there is an increase of considerable competition in the sector in the last two years.
With the proliferation of small pastries, such as those that sell Brigadier and "cupcakes" (sweets in the shape of a miniature cake), low investment franchises have emerged in recent years. Although some rival franchises don't sell cakes (the focus of Love to pieces), stores end up competing for the same client. "It is a superfluous which can be cheap, and that won consumers with the increase of income of the class c. so, attracted investments of new networks, which have emerged in large numbers in the last five years," says the consultant Claudio Felisoni.