Force expands focus on food service

In another effort to add value and reduce the weight of commodities like milk long life in the portfolio, the Force makes a new bet, this time in a product aimed at the food service. After a year of development, the dairy company controlled by holding company J&F puts on the market a gourmet Greek yogurt to be used as an ingredient in the preparation of recipes by food service customers, such as restaurants, bakeries and hotels, and by the final consumer.
Gilberto Xandó, CEO of Force, claims that the product can be used as a substitute for sour cream and mayonnaise in the preparation of recipes. This is possible, explains, because the product is neutral-i.e. no adding salt or sugar. According to the Executive, there is similar in the country for the item already exists in the United States and Europe. "The advantage is that it has more protein and less fat than the cream".
Although Xandó do not release numbers, the expectation is that the new product increment revenues of Force in the food service segment. In the first quarter of this year, they accounted for 22.1% of net revenues of the parent company, which totaled r $ 427,6 million. Considering the consolidated revenue of the Force, $ 1,019 billion in the period, the share of food service in the period was 9.3%.
For this year, the prediction of the effect for the Capex is about R $ 40 million, but the new product demanded small investment, of about $ 500,000. Second Xandó, resources were used in the development of the product and revenue in the culinary center of Force-in partnership with the network of restaurant Vienna-and also in tests with customers.
The Force inaugurated the category Greek yogurt in Brazil in July 2012 and second Xandó, "the market grows quarter to quarter." He does not disclose how much the category represents the revenues of the Force, but the dairy segment accounted for 35.6% of consolidated net revenues of the company from January to March. The new item intended for food service will be produced in the same unit of Force in that it is produced the line of Greek yogurts, in São Paulo.
At first, the product will be marketed only for the food service, but in the last quarter of this year the Greek gourmet yogurt must also be available for retail sale to the final consumer.