Gastón Lo Russo, general manager of Bimbo in Argentina, says he is satisfied with the path taken that involved a process of reconversion of the bakery company of Mexican origin and that is crowned with the approval of the parent company of an investment of about 90 million dollars at the Pilar plant.
After a year and a half in that position, his recipe is not very different from the one he applied in other companies where he has worked: review the portfolio of brands and focus on those that have the most opportunities and recognition among consumers and invest in talent and renew the company, even from a physical point of view with the modernization of the San Fernando offices. Thus, Lo Russo himself conducted more than 1,000 interviews with candidates “who came from top-tier multinationals.” And 150 entered.
“We are already a reference within the Mundo Bimbo in talent, there are people who, with less than two years of company, are already required for regional positions,” says Lo Russo, who follows advice given to him by a general manager when he started as an assistant : ‘The more you grow in the company, the more time you dedicate to people issues’.
As part of the expansion in Argentina, it is planned to triple what was invested in Córdoba in 2016.
It is a huge investment that will bring sources of work, in a category that is of basic consumption such as sliced bread where we are more than doubling production capacity. It is very good news because consumption is growing and so are we, although we are not being able to keep up with the growth”.
In Argentina, the base of the pyramid is growing, but premium products are also growing. What grows the least are the medium-priced products. They seek to understand what is organic growth and what is because of the innovations that were launched, because of the publicity that was done. “Artesano, for example, launched brioche bread, a potato bun for hamburgers that was a resounding success.”
Last year, more sliced bread grew, however, the general manager comments that there is a whole trend with premium hamburgers and consumers are becoming more sophisticated and pay more attention to what bread they put on the hamburger they make at home .
In this way, all these premium breads are growing. And sliced bread is growing by 8%, the total category. “But we are not being able to keep up with that growth because we do not have production capacity.”
Argentina is the fifth country in per capita consumption of bread, but only 16% of that consumption is sliced bread. In other words, the Argentine is still very used to buying bread at the bakery. So the investment will be for the expansion in the sliced bread.
