A transparent wrapper reveals the chocolate Easter egg with a white sugar border and pink flowers with green leaves occupy the center of the piece filled with sprinkles.
Under the Il Genovese label, Ricard filled supermarket windows with hand-decorated eggs under the slogan “like those of a lifetime”. However, in 2023 these sweets no longer have a place in the gondolas of large surfaces and are only achieved by hand.
From the TaTa supermarket, the operations manager, Pablo Malnati, assures Coffee & Business that Grupo Bimbo —owner of Ricard— was their main partner at Easter and not having them was a “major shock”.
The national production that Ricard made for this celebration stopped and this forced TaTa to redesign its sales structure “because our public was very associated with our own brand eggs” (also made by Ricard). This forced TaTa to look for new partners, but this time abroad.
Easter eggs are an easily verifiable example at this time, but the reduction of Ricard’s business in Uruguay has also been seen in other aspects.
According to the union leader of Obreros del Dulce Ramas y Afines (Onodra), Javier García, the Plucky Ricard plant “is very complicated given that they have a lot of competition and it is difficult for them to place the products.”
The star product, ricarditos, was sold in large quantities to Argentina, but the lag in the value of the dollar impacted the competitiveness of this traditional Uruguayan sweet.
In labor matters, this led to the workers being partially under the rotating unemployment insurance regime during 2022. However, towards the end of the year they returned to their jobs, but the situation of the plant “is monitored month by month”, he indicates Garcia.
“They didn’t make the Easter egg this year,” confirms García, noting that their product portfolio has been significantly reduced and currently they limit production to “ricardito, snacks, some cereal bars and nougat.”
The union leader also says that they only sell to large stores, which means that in many parts of the interior or in small businesses in the capital, some of their classic products are not found, such as the ricardito.
“This is what you see in practice,” says García, recalling that 10 years ago there were 200 workers at the plant where about 40 people now work.
consulted by Coffee & Business, Grupo Bimbo Uruguay preferred not to make statements about the present and future of this line of business.
