Silvia Naishtat
10/19/2020 8:32 PM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 10/19/2020 8:32 PM
With a very careful wording, so typical in the business world, the statement from the French Danone makes it clear that it is still in Argentina, although probably much smaller.
I mean, there is no quick end.
But it will be an end.
In Paris, not only was the retirement of its powerful financial director announced, but they are going to speak with their partners in Argentina for a process they called "review."
They face it to the beat of a fall in their turnover of 9% in the world.
One fact: the only place they "check" is Argentina.
Will you put your assets up for sale?
What is the meaning of the word review?
The food industry gathered in Copal, the chamber that brings them together, asked yesterday.
There they displayed figures showing the size of the wound with a
11% drop in the sale of branded foods and with packaging and exports of those same products that collapsed 60%.
When Mauricio Macri won in 2015, Javier Lozada, then Danone's senior manager, anticipated: "2016 will be a different year, let's hope that the next government will bring something good, especially a rational pricing policy."
With Macri, there were no price controls, but sales began to
lose weight, accumulating 70%
from then to now.
Before the start of 2020, Danone reported that its headquarters had
contributed € 110,000,000 to the local subsidiary.
It is that in 2019 their offices suffered 30%.
Danone products
At the Paris headquarters, on the very elegant Boulevard Haussmann, they stopped looking at Argentina with affection for a long time, as when Antoine Riboud and Daniel Carassò came to be associated in 1994 with La Serenísima, a joint venture that ended with the separation of some business.
Danone kept the desserts and yogurts, the most profitable part.
Also, with the powerful La Serenísima distribution chain with immense penetration in almost the entire country.
With Arcor they are partners in Bagley and have factories in Brazil and Chile.
In that company, the Pagani family, owner of Arcor, has control and 51%.
They are also the owners of Villavicencio.
In recent years they have run into conflicts that have become more acute.
Villavicencio, which was a generic in the case of mineral water,
found competition with "Villamanaos", with the same logo and color on the bottle.
Of course, instead of a premium price, at a popular value.
The biggest problems arose at their Longchamps plant.
Located in the Buenos Aires town, it is its largest factory in Latin America, it makes spreadable cheeses, yogurts, puddings and desserts.
The plant processes 600,000 liters of milk per day.
There, French executives encountered the most combative division of Atilra, the union that groups together workers in the dairy industry.
By the way, the pandemic gave the
coup de grace
in much of the Danone basket that offers products that are bought on impulse such as desserts for children.
To all this are added executives who want to understand the rules of the game and think that Argentina will take time to grow again.
And despite his 26 years in the country and the crises they have already gone through, the obstacles to the possibility of paying dividends.
It was another ingredient in the decision.
