A fine meat company controlled by the Brazilian company ARG Group, Carapreta — with three farms in the north of the state of Minas Gerais — advanced its plan to invest R$1 billion in seven years to consolidate operations, saw its results surpass initial expectations and now is putting together a new set of projects to gain market share in Brazil and abroad.
Focusing on the heavy construction segment, ARG was founded in Minas Gerais in 1978 by brothers José, Rodolfo and Adolfo Géo. In 2017, with the start of the expansion plan began, which will be completed in 2023, the family already had two farms (Jequiti and Santa Mônica) with traditional livestock farming for decades, but they saw a chance to improve and transform the activity into a truly profitable business.
Then came the professionalization, expansion of production, diversification, investments in genetics and marketing and, of course, a whole new sales strategy to expand the commercialization of Carapreta meat cuts in retail, food service and abroad.
“When we structured the project to add value to the business, we evaluated the production chain and studied the main sales channels. In this work, we saw that the market wanted quality, regularity and standardization,” says Carapreta’s CEO Vitoriano Dornas.
With revenues of around R$400 million in 2021 and a forecast to reach the level of R$500 million this year, the company, which has 1,400 employees, is currently present in the beef, sheep and fish segment, in addition to agricultural operations.
The Santa Mônica farm, in São João da Ponte, has cattle herds, agriculture and power generation; in Santa Terezinha, in the same municipality, there are slaughterhouses, sheep, agriculture, fish, and solar and biodigesters power generation; and the third farm, incorporated in the expansion and located in Jequitaí, has agriculture and beef cattle.
In cattle breeding, Carapreta gathers a total of 70,000 heads of cattle, and to compete in the market for premium Angus cuts, it invested in genetic mapping and closed a partnership with Alta Genetics. In sheep farming, it has 30,000 heads — the largest in Latin America, according to Mr. Dornas.
Last year, the company produced 8,500 tonnes of beef, and the goal is to reach 12,000 tonnes in 2022. The supply of sheep meat, in turn, should increase to 1,500 from 1,200 tonnes. For the fish area, the expectation is to maintain the rhythm, at around 3,000 tonnes.
Source: Valor International