Wesley Batista Filho takes the helm of Seara
JBS's crown jewel in Brazil, Seara, is under new command. Having presided over the unit's restructuring, Joanita Karoleski passed the helm on Wednesday to Wesley Batista Filho, in another chapter of the young businessman's ascent toward the top of the group controlled by his father, Wesley Batista, and his uncle Joesley Batista.At 28 years of age, 10 of them dedicated to JBS, he will be tasked with leading a Seara that aspires to the leadership in the market of processed food, poultry and pork, with cash pile of billions to fund its ambitions. The business will receive most of the R$8 billion that the group will invest in Brazil through 2024.
The project, not publicly declared, is to make Seara double in size. It currently has about R$20 billion in annual sales. In the expansion, partner farmers will have to invest R$5 billion in poultry and pig farms to increase their capacity. The company released the investment plan for the next five years in December.
To support Seara's growth, farmers already are investing. One source says almost R$800 million in capital expenditures already are under way. That is meant to help the company increase chicken slaughtering in Brazil to about 5 million animals a day from 4.3 million. Currently, Seara's 30 poultry-processing plans have capacity to handle 5.2 million birds, which will grow in the coming years. Leader BRF can slaughter more than 6.5 million.
The Seara that Mr. Batista Filho will head is much different from the company his father acquired in September 2013, when JBS was just starting in the Brazilian poultry and pork market, even if not denying its ambitions - Wesley Batista told Valor in 2012 that the group could compete with BRF at some point. But Seara, which belonged to rival Marfrig, was stumbling in logistics and losing money at the time. A strong Brazilian currency and expensive corn were not helping either.
When taking the helm in 2013, Gilberto Tomazoni - now JBS's chief executive and at the time Seara CEO - promised to reverse the cash burn swiftly, which indeed occurred. Then, Seara started grabbing market share from BRF, which owns iconic brands Sadia and Perdigão.
JBS's growth in the Brazilian processed-food market had the support of hefty marketing spending, but seemed to have hit its apex in 2017, precisely when the turbulence caused by the Batistas'...
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