Portfolio
Solutions for several Business Areas
Strategic Planning
Did Strategic Plan for almost all the companies I worked for:
- L’Oréal – Cosmetics, Manufacturing – 95/97
- Sovena Group – Soft Drinks, Coffee, Edible Oils, Manufacturing – 99-11
- Par Technology – Technology (Software and Hardware). Manufacturing – 17-21
As a Business Consultant
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- Develop Business Plan for foreign CPG Company (Coricelli, Olive Oil) to expand in the US and then, coordinate search, and engage with large US Company for partnership – 13/1
- Develop Strategic Plan for the Malga Group (Olive Oil, Manufacturing) to expand in the US 15/16
- Worked in the Business Plan and Investor presentations for a SAAS Startup in the customer data for restaurants space – Customer.Xi. This involved doing LT projections with detailed revenue and cost projections, namely Product roadmap / R&D projections. LT P&L, BS, CF. 21/22
- Work with a Not-for Profit Service organization – Conscious Capitalism – in their Budget and reporting. 2022 to present
- Worked with a service company – Zutek – in their business plan and Long Term Projection. LT P&L, BS, CF. 2023
Mergers & Acquisitions
Some examples of M&A experience:
– Joint Venture – 2012/13 – small company – Directed efforts to form US food Distribution Company between to US partners and foreign manufacturer. Directed market analysis, financial planning and valuations, negotiations. Status: Projected stopped at the end as the foreign partner quit.
– Buy Side – 2007/08 – medium company – Acquisition of the global (but largely US) License agreement of a consumer goods brand from Unilever, involving also the acquisition of a large factory overseas. Participated at the highest level in due diligence, management presentations, several valuations, and business plans, reviewed/edited all transaction documents, negotiations. Sovena lost bid to a competitor at the very end; acquisition went for approximately for USD $1Billion.
– Sell Side – Spin-off – 2006 – small – Company decided to sell its blow-molding business to a “through-the-wall” expert operator. Prepared valuations, reviewed/edited all transaction documents, conducted negotiations.
– Buy Side – 2005 – small US consumer goods’ company – Integrated Sovena USA into parent structure and managed the company.
– Sell Side – 2004/2005 – medium Portuguese company – Assisted CEO in selling the company (Compal and Nutricafes), elaborated valuations, prepared data-room and management presentations. Assisted in negotiations.
– Sell Side – Spin-off – 2002 – small – Performed valuation of this 50%-50% joint venture between Portuguese Beverage Company (Compal) and Unilever. Companies bid for each other’s half. Our side sold.
– Buy Side – 1997 – small Brazilian media company – Integrated Motorpress Brazil into parent structure and participated in company’s management.
– As Director of FP&A for Par Technology, in 2017-2021 – participated in several M&A projects including the Spinoff of one Business Unit and Acquisition of 3 Businesses up to $500M in the 2017-2021 period.
Sales & Marketing
Working for L’Oréal, I participated in two great projects. First, in 95/96 as L’Oréal bought the Maybelline brand, we converted (in Portugal) all products of an older brand – Gemey – into the newly acquired brand. Then, I participated in the launch of the Fructis Brand in Portugal in 96/97.
At the Sovena Group, I was fortunate to have a great Sales and Marketing experience.
Working for the Soft Drinks (Compal and Frize) and Coffee Business Units, in 99-05, I participated in several projects that conducted to the launch of some brands like Frize flavors and Compal Essencial. I also participated in a very interesting prospection project, doing the census of about 100,000 restaurants and coffee shops in Portugal, entering them into a new CRM, and starting a direct delivery project with our own vans and salespeople.
When I became CEO of Sovena USA I was able to develop the Olivari Olive Oil brand into the US and, in 2010, we entered 4,000 Walmarts and about 1,200 other stores of several chains in the US.
I also managed the Food Service salesforce nation-wide in the US in 09-11 and the entire $200M sales organization in 10/11.
As a consultant:
- Counsel on Broker Strategy and identifying Food Brokers to represent a CPG company (Olivamed). Oct 14 to Nov 14.
- Market Study in the US about an exotic fruit – Dates – for a foreign CPG company – Biosca Tamara, Nov 14 to Dec 14.
- US Market Study for a foreign food company – Coricelli – and identification of detailed target list of potential customers in the USA. Aug14 to Oct 14.
- Conducting Brand extension study for a medium size Consumer Goods company – LiDestri Foods. Jan 16 to April 16.
- US Representative for Malga USA LLC (Olive OIL), managing company with main focus of sales for bulk and private label product; grew business from zero to double digits in $M. Also developing marketing for Bulla Regia Brand – June 16 to present
Finance
Either as a Controller, CFO, or Director of Financial Planning & Analysis, I have done Financial Projections for budgets and/or Strategic Plans for all the companies I worked for including L’Oréal (cosmetics, 95/97), Motorpres (media, 97/98), the Sovena Group 99/10 (Food&Beverage), and Par Technoloy (technology, 17-21). In those functions I’ve also had to build several other financial models to support certain brand or capex investments and I did the Financial Models behind the M&A decisions for the projects mentioned above and dozens of others.
The work in reporting has gone in tandem with that – sometimes weekly, but often monthly, quarterly, and annually; for internal management purposes and for external investor and stakeholders in public companies.
All companies I worked for had manufacturing and I’ve dealt with several types of costing systems, which in fact I’ve shaped at Sovena and Par Technology. And I created or influenced heavily the cost accounting system and internal reporting of almost all the companies I worked for.
Among things I’ve done that are not too common, it’s worth mentioning the implementation of a Balanced ScoreCard (2001) and the build up of Software As a Service (SAAS) KPI’s for Par Technology (2018) and Customer Xi (2022
As a consultant, besides doing the Financial Projections for the Strategic Plans above:
- Developed Financial Projections for Cx.I, a startup Customer Data Platform – Q2 22
- Ongoing FP&A work for Conscious Capitalism Inc., including Budgeting and monthly management reporting – May 2022 to present).
Operations
During my years at Sovena USA, 05/11, both as VP and CEO, I supervised the operations of this manufacturer and distributor of Edible Oils. I started by setting efficiency metrics for bottling and warehousing/shipping operations. We implemented lean tools (Bottleneck Analysis, OEE, 6BL, TPM, etc.) and engaged people through a bonus plan impacting every single worker. With all this in place, efficiencies improved by 20% in 1.5 years. I coordinated the building of a $20 million, 200,000 square feet facility. Later on, we expanded the warehouse to a high-density setting with wire-guided forklifts, and a WMS to manage the 12,000 pallet spaces. I also spearheaded the efforts for that facility to become one of the first in the US certified as SQF – Level 3, in 2009. The company and its operations kept growing; we had 10 production lines when I left (were 6 in the beginning). The company faired with the best in service levels’ scorecards of the likes of Walmart and Kroger.
As a consultant, the activity here has been modest with only one project thus far: an Operations Audit to Olivamed. Aug/Sep 2013
Project Management
The largest projects I have managed directly include implementing SAP ERP for Compal/Nutricafes, a company with about 600 employees, 02/04, integrating Sovena USA into the Sovena Group corporate structure, 05, and building a New Plant for Sovena and transitioning from the old to the new facility, 06/07. I’ve also implemented ERP for a smaller company (Morotpress) and several other systems including Workflow, CRM, and WMS. As a consultant, I have not done any such project but I’ve recently completed a refresher training in Project Management and Microsoft Project.
Economic Development
Projects to date:
- Work with MVEDGE (local Economic Development Agency) to promote the region and its incentives to CPG/Food manufacturers through an industry trade show. Follow up on leads. 14-17.
- Work with Cornell University’s economic development dept. to develop, execute and analyze a questionnaire to about 200 NYS food companies about exports. Dec 14 to Feb 15.
- Work with Cornell University’s economic development dept. to analyze six product markets in China and it’s potential for specific large Northeast food cos. Sales strategy suggestion and identification/analysis of specific distributors in China. Apr 14 to February 15
