The inauguration event was attended by Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou, who summarized in his speech what this dairy cooperative means for the Uruguayan country. “To say Conaprole is to say Uruguay.” Is that In practice, Conaprole is not only the main dairy firm in the country, but also the main private company in Uruguay.
In this framework, Conaprole authorities also announced that they will distribute profits for US$9 among the members of the cooperative. These are profits generated by both Conaprole and Prolesa, the latter an agro-input company controlled by the cooperative.
Nowadays, Conaprole is the main exporter of Uruguay with more than 50 markets and the leading dairy company in Latin America in the Asian market. The company managed to position itself and maintain itself in this position thanks to its continuous investments, as explained in the sector in the last 10 years it has invested around US$400 million.
The importance of Conaprole in Uruguay can be directly compared to what the dairy cooperative SanCor meant for Argentina. The dairy company was also a local leader in its segment, where it came to have 17 processing plants and more than 5,000 employees under its orbit.
The truth is that SanCor underwent a strong process of indebtedness and scrapping of its giant structure. Even during the previous government he lived perhaps his worst time, in 2016 he had to divest his dessert and yogurt business that was bought by the Vicentin Group for a total of US$100 million. A short time later, in 2017, it closed four industrial plants and by 2018 it finalized the sale of its share package in Afisa Arla Foods, dedicated to the infant formula business, finally, months later, it sold two plants to Adecoagro.
Currently the company has six industrial plants – three located in the towns of Sunchales, Gálvez and San Guillermo in Santa Fe and another three distributed in Devoto, La Carlota and Balnearia in Córdoba, but it processes barely 500,000 liters of raw milk per day. The ideal, they say in the sector, would be to reach 1.5 million a day, but that without fresh funds seems like a utopia.
It is within this framework that in the last few hours a plan has begun to advance, promoted by a group of businessmen, to execute the rescue of SanCor, with the aim of recovering not only the lost splendor but also its fundamental place in the Argentine dairy business.
Specifically, In a meeting, the members of the cooperative approved the creation of a trust that will give rise to the creation of SanCor Capital, an initiative that aims to establish a fund from which to expand the production and billing of the firm. The project is headed by entrepreneurs Marcelo Figueiras (Richmond Laboratories), José Urtubey (Celulosa Argentina) and Gonzalo Scaglion (La Capital de Rosario).
According to reports, in the first five years of this trust, all the profits generated in SanCor will be 100% invested in the firm, then from the sixth to the eighth year, this group of businessmen will keep 50% and then that portion will increase to 80%. In exchange, these leaders would not only inject fresh money in the short term, but would also be the visible face for Banco Nación to provide funds of around US$60 million.
The plan is to get SanCor out of its labyrinth and return it to its position as a generator of employment, foreign currency and investment, just as Conaprole is today in Uruguay.
Source From: Ambito
