In the last 10 years more than one promised his arrival . For a long time, gourmets dreamed of tasting their products without having to use their passport to reach them. Local coffee sommeliers looked forward to it . But those promises, which were announced loudly, did not materialize in reality. That it arrived in 2007 at the Falabella premises, that an Argentine businessman planned to have it at his airport. Any.
However, 2021 seems to be the year that the long wait would finally be over . The work on the ground floor of the mall, next to the supermarket, has already begun and in November they expect to open the first Juan Valdez store in Argentina. Behind this project is the RE Gastronomic Group, owners of the Almacén de Pizzas operation and part of the trident entrepreneur who got the franchise of the Colombian brand.
It all started several years ago in Santiago de Chile. Sebastián Ríos Fernández, general director of the group, was there together with Marcelo Fullana, another company executive. Next to the hotel where they were staying they saw a place that caught their attention. In 2016, when they were in the process of opening the Paraguayan market with their brand of gourmet pizzerias, they came up with the idea of complementing that growth with the addition of another brand to their portfolio.
"There we remembered what we had seen in Chile and we said: "Why not?" We faced the contacts and began a competition process because, at the same time, there were many interested in bringing it," recalls Fullana, in charge of the retail channel within RE.
The idea of Juan Valdez was born in 1959 far from Colombia, but in the heart of New York. It was a creation of the DDB agency for the National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, which sought to position one of its flagship products abroad. In 2002 it began to grow through franchises and after a few years it began international expansion. Today it has 337 stores in the Colombian market and more than 130 points of sale in 13 countries , from Malaysia and Spain to Aruba.
In Grupo RE, they say, the keys to obtaining the license were two. On the one hand, having a consolidated and experienced gastronomic operation. "They told us that they were not very confident in being able to disembark in Argentina due to the ups and downs of the country. They came to tour our stores and that was a differentiator," says Ríos Fernández.
Meanwhile, the Paraguayan group ACSA also played a fundamental role , which manages both the Juan Valdez and Almacén de Pizzas franchises in said market. In turn, they came together as partners in the local enterprise to form the REACSA society, whose third participating member is the Tostado-Tienda de Café group .
Negotiations began in 2016, but the agreement was only announced in mid-2019. The plan was to open 20 stores in five years with the first one cutting ribbon in December in downtown Buenos Aires. First the economy and then the pandemic paused the plans. It seemed that history was repeating itself, however from the holding company they repeated: "It is done". For this reason, last January they decided to move forward with the retail channel and brought a first shipment of 7,500 kilos of Juan Valdez products .
" It was a business that we were completely unaware of , that of selling in supermarkets, because it is not our style. We learned. We tried with a first container to see how the brand responded and it did very well, so we already started with the registrations to bring more varieties ", details Jorge García Allende, responsible for the Juan Valdez brand in Argentina and in charge of the expansion of RE. From the group they expect to close 2021 with sales of $18 million within the retail leg and they project that it will reach $60 million next year.
Once the health situation allowed the gastronomic sector to breathe again, the local plan was reactivated with some modifications marked by caution. From 20 stores to eight and from downtown Buenos Aires to a shopping mall. The first Juan Valdez store in Argentina will be located in the Unicenter and will have 116 square meters. "It convinced us because it is right at the entrance of the supermarket and one of the brand's differentials is the sale of packages for home consumption and we understood that being there fueled that potential," says Ríos Fernández.
This is consistent with the perspectives of the holding company for the various verticals of the brand. By 2022 they calculate that 60 percent of the business will come from the retail leg, 30 percent from stores and 10 percent from the Horeca sector (Hotels, Restaurants and Cafes).
There are only two products available in the gondolas: ground coffee, in its Volcán, Cumbre and Colina variants; and the lyophilisate of 50 and 95 grams. "Now we start with the registrations to bring more varieties . Freeze-dried chocolate, vanilla and dulce de leche flavor and ground from the Orígenes line. As always, complications arose in terms of import obstacles that we are trying to unblock in order to continue with the fluidity that we understand should have the business," says García Allende.
At the moment, the entire opening plan contemplates that the stores be their own. "They force us to do this -they explain- until they verify how we operate and from there we can talk about the possibility of franchising". However, the strategy of the trident for Juan Valdez does not stop there. Before the end of the year they hope to have their own active e-commerce channel and for the second stage of the stores (first half of 2022) they plan to incorporate the sale of brand products. In this category appear everything from electric grinders, French presses to drippers, all designed for coffee lovers.
However, today the famous Colombian brand only holds 5 percent of RE's total business. In five years they calculate that it will be a quarter of all their billing. The workhorse is still the world of pizzas.
The original version of this note was published in number 334 of Apertura magazine.
