More than 10 years ago, Martín Carro identified a little-exploited business niche and did not stop until he realized his long-awaited project: having his own 100% natural squeezed juice processing factory.. Today, with your brand Pura Frutta, reaches the main supermarkets in the country and stands out for one peculiarity: they do not have octagons. The story behind the company that was born with the objective of making 100% apple juice and today managed to diversify, position itself among the leaders in its segment in the domestic market and also exports to neighboring countries.
This entrepreneur was born in the Upper Valley of Río Negro, he does not come from a family of agricultural producers or businessmen, but he always wanted to get into business. In 2001 he settled in Buenos Aires to study industrial engineering and during those years he developed an idea, the 100% natural juice segment was not fully exploited in the country and in his native region, Patagonia, there was a very great potential to take advantage of. the apples.
“It took years of looking at the business segment and understanding that there was an opportunity there. I graduated, I lived for a while in Brazil for work and I always had in mind the development of this venture, which I did not see as self-employment, but rather something big, a large-scale juice factory to supply the domestic market and export. It wasn’t until 2012 that I made the decision to exploit this idea seriously and began to explore opportunities. It wasn’t easy because I couldn’t get financing and it was difficult to enter the field. QIn 2014, together with my partner, José Carlos, with our own funds and loans from family and friends, we founded the company, with an initial investment of around US$400,000. We couldn’t start operating right away because we started a whole process to import the machinery, which wasn’t easy either because we were a firm with no track record. without billing, nothing,” explains in dialogue with Ámbito Martín Carro, the head and heart behind Pura Frutta.
Only in 2015 did the company manage to start processing apples to make 100% natural apple juice, without additives or preservatives, but in the first instance they packaged it in a three-liter bag in box, that was the format they were able to exploit and that’s where they went. . “Only in 2016 we began to produce and send in bulk to a plant in Buenos Aires for fractionation and packaging in 1 liter, in this way we managed to disembark in the retail channel, since that was always the objective and that is where the business really started.”says Carro.
Years of expansion followed with the launch of more flavor varieties and the consolidation of the Pura Frutta commercial brand, with its slogan “100% juice 0% chamuyo.” “From the beginning we knew that we had to have more flavors beyond apples, because in the Argentine market around 80% of the juices sold are orange and that is why we expanded to more fruits and combinations. Later we continued making investments in the plant to grow productionthe other partner, Marcos Mercado, joined,” explains the founder of the company.
Another of the firm’s great milestones happened in 2019 when they partnered with Grupo Prima, the largest producer of organic fruit in the southern hemisphere and the largest exporter of fresh fruit from Patagonia. And this is how Carro tells it: “it was a very positive association because we had been working with them for some time as suppliers of fresh fruit, we knew each other and they knew what the vision of our business was. Today the destiny of the company is still managed by the founding partners, but always with the support behind a large company like the Prima Group.”
This strategic association also gave Pura Frutta the necessary push to have its own packaging plant in its plant, so as not to send the product to be divided into Buenos Aires and that is not all because also, by dint of million-dollar investments, they managed to grow in capacity. of production until reaching 20 million liters, a volume that projects the possibility of strong expansion in the domestic market and with exports.
“We are currently producing around 5 million liters and 10% is destined for the international market, mainly neighboring countries such as Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.“We also do some white label for supermarkets and provide bulk apple juice for the industry. In any case, the core of our business continues to be retail,” says Mercado.
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Certified B Company
Within the original business plan there was always the plan to produce 100% natural juices without additives or preservatives and based on the labeling law the company did not have to adapt since its product met all the requirements for not having octagons, but that did not It’s all because the founders’ project was also to have a certified B company and in March of this year they achieved it.
The company uses the main solid waste from its production, fruit bagasse, as a by-product that is sent to compost. It also uses recyclable packaging, from renewable sources, among other key issues.
In this framework, Pura Frutta is also advancing its 0% waste project, whose main objective is to collect the equivalent of 100% of the Tetra Pak containers introduced into the market by 2025.. “We are truly proud of the company we have formed and we still have a long way to go, from that initial idea of taking advantage of a regional economy like that of Apple, we are where and how we want,” closes Martín Carro.
Source: Ambito
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