Grupo Arcor

Grupo Arcor

Type	Private
Industry	Food processing
Founded	5 July 1951 (1951-07-05)
Founder	Amos Pagani & Fulvio Pagani
Headquarters	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Luis Pagani, Chairman & CEO
Products	Food, candies, chocolates, cookies, marmalades, desserts
Revenue	3.3 billion USD (2012)[1]
Number of employees	20,000 [1]
Subsidiaries	Aguila [2] Bagley [3] La Campagnola [4]
Website	arcor.com.ar

Grupo Arcor (name formed taking the first letters of the words "Arroyito" and "Córdoba": "AR-COR") is an Argentine food company specialized in confectionery. The firm was founded on July 5, 1951 in the city of Arroyito, Córdoba.

Arcor is an Argentine group that specializes in the production of foodstuff, sugar and chocolate confectionery, cookies and ice cream. It develops leading brands in its 39 industrial plants throughout Latin America. Currently, Arcor is the main foodstuff company in Argentina.

Arcor manages its business in a sustainable way with commercial offices in America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The company is the Argentine group with the greatest amount of open markets in the world, exporting its products to more than 120 countries in the 5 continents.

In 2012 Arcor ranked 1st. amongst the 100 most valuable companies of Argentina, according to the opinion of CEOs, financial analysts and journalists specialised in economics.^[5]

History

Arcor was born on 5 July 1951 when a group of entrepreneurs, sons of Italian immigrants, opened the first candy factory in Arroyito, Córdoba Province. They decided to call it "ARCOR", a name made from the combination of the first two letters of the word "Arroyito" and the first three of "Córdoba".

In 1958, Arcor reached 60,000 kg of daily confectionery production and stopped being just a candy factory to start producing different product lines with the objective of providing itself with its strategic supplies. This allowed Arcor Group to offer the best quality at the fairest price.

In 1967, Arcor established its Official Distributors System. During all these years, the Company's production was intended for the domestic market, mainly the provinces. Its significant expansion towards Buenos Aires started in the early 70's.

In this same decade, Arcor consolidated its vertical integration through the construction of industrial plants in order to meet the different needs of the company –from raw materials to packaging, including even energy.

Meanwhile the company kept on growing both in Argentina and in the different countries of the region: in 1976 it settled in Paraguay, in 1979 in Uruguay, in 1981 in Brazil and in 1989 in Chile.

The Group acquired Águila Saint (1993), one of the Argentine main chocolate companies. One year later, Arcor opened in Colonia Caroya the then largest and most modern model plant in Latin America for the manufacturing of chocolate.

In 1993, 35 years’ old accountant Luis Alejandro Pagani took on the presidency of Arcor Group. During his term in office, the group acquired Noel, a brand of foodstuff and sugar confectionery.

Arcor continued its expansion throughout South America by opening in 1995 a large candy manufacturing plant in Peru.

In 1997, Arcor acquired LIA, a well-known cookies company in Argentina and in order to celebrate all the actions developed till then, it inaugurated the Arcor Museum in Arroyito, province of Cordoba. The main objective of this initiative was to share pieces of the company’s history with the people. This museum welcomes around 5,000 visitors every year.

In 1998, Arcor Group acquired Dos en Uno, a Chilean leading company of sugar and chocolate confectionery, with a strong presence in the region. One year later, in 1999, the group opened the chocolate manufacturing plant with the most advanced technology in the region and with a model distribution center in Bragança Paulista (Brazil).

In 2000, it opened commercial offices in Mexico and Colombia and inaugurated a new distribution center in Chile.

One year later, it settled in Canada. In 2001 also, it entered into a production agreement with Brach’s, a leading North American company, and Arcor do Brasil purchased from Nestlé some very well-known and popular brands such as Kid’s, Poosh, Amor, Pirapito and 7Belo.

The political and economic crises which the large Argentine agro-industrial companies suffered by the end of 2001, hit Arcor badly. The company was in full international expansion at that time. On January 2, 2002 Eduardo Duhalde was elected President of the country by the Legislative Assembly while chaos ruled in the streets of Buenos Aires. A short time later, he implemented the pesification of the debt through decree 214/2002 providing help to 140 large companies which were experiencing financial difficulties. By means of this decree the national government transferred reserves from the Central Bank in order to cover exchange differences and hence avoid economic losses to Argentine capital companies12. Later, Arcor was able to restructure its debt on December 1, 2008 with up to 5-year financing.

Arcor Group settled in Europe in 2002 through the opening of commercial offices in Barcelona, Spain.

During 2005, Arcor Group launched a new line of business –ice creams– in Argentina exporting nowadays to bordering countries such as Paraguay, Bolivia and Uruguay.

In 2005 Arcor entered into a strategic joint venture with the French Danone group. Through this agreement, the cookies & crackers, alfajores and cereal bars business lines in Argentina, Brazil and Chile were unified under Arcor’s management. In this way one of the regional leading cookies & crackers companies in the region was born: Bagley Latinoamérica S.A.

By the end of 2005, Arcor Group acquired Benvenuto S.A.C.I., a traditional Argentine company and leader as regards the foodstuff local market. In this way it incorporated its lines of canned fish, tomato sauces, canned tomatoes and purees, canned vegetables, milk jam (dulce de leche), jams, preserves and marmalades, canned fruits and dressings from a portfolio of highly valued brands such as La Campagnola, Nereida, BC, Salsati, Poncho Negro, among others.

Arcor opened commercial offices in Venezuela, South Africa and China in order to strengthen the presence of its products in more distant markets.

This continuous search for business in foreign markets paved the way for a production association with Bimbo Group in Mexico in 2006, for the manufacturing of confectionery and chocolates in Mexico in order to supply the Mexican market as well as other markets around the world.

Brands and products

Arcor Group Foodstuff Division participates in more than 12 categories, including: jams and marmalades, fruit paste, sauces and canned tomatoes, tomato purees, canned vegetables, canned fish, beverages, mixes, polenta, dressings, oils and fruits, among others.

The following is a list containing the brands and its products, manufactured and/or commercialized by Arcor:^[6]

External links

• Official website (Spanish)

References