Juan Valdez arrives. Landing in the country and plans to open 150 stores in seven years

After several years of negotiations and evaluation of eight different offers,
Colombian coffee brand Juan Valdez will land in Argentina at the end of the year. This will be in the hands of the Reacsa group, which is a partnership between the Argentine group Re (also owner of Almacén de Pizzas) and the Paraguayan group Acsa, which holds the trademark license in the neighboring country since late 2014 .

"The agreement is already closed, we signed three months ago," he confirmed.
THE NATION Sebastián Ríos, director of Grupo Re. The maximum commitment, he said, is to reach 150 stores nationwide over the next seven years.

The binational company has obtained the license of the brand for Argentina and Uruguay for a period of five years and for the three chains owned by Juan Valdez: the cafeteria, the sale of products and the "hotel and catering" market – hotels, restaurants and catering – which offers the possibility of selling coffee and coffee machines to gourmets and hoteliers.

Juan Valdez has three formats of physical premises:
Lighthouse, the most ambitious, of about 150 square meters (m2); bar, about 70 m2 and
Express, between 8 and 14 square meters. "The idea is to open a first store between November and the first quarter of 2020, which, in our opinion, should not be a
LighthouseBut a little more moderate, "said Rios, adding that the first coffee to be installed has still not been defined, although it is a place of great competition, so it could be a shopping center or avenue.

Ríos explained that the direct investment is that of a traditional franchise. "We bought the product from Procafecol S.A (a company owned by Juan Valdez, which vertically integrates the process from grain production to cup) and we paid
fresh on the income of the local. It will be invested in each site as and when they open, but the estimated investment between works and royalties is between $ 1,200 and $ 1,400 per square meter, "he said.

The intention of the Reacsa Group is to open between 20 and 30 stores in the city of Buenos Aires and five in Uruguay (distributed between Montevideo and Punta del Este), with a combination of the three formats. After the first year of operation, the Colombian company will evaluate the operations in the country and, if it is in agreement with the development, it could grant Reacsa the authorization to sub-franchise the brand, which would trigger its expansion. According to Ríos, in this scenario, the Juan Valdez brand could have 150 stores all over the country from here to seven years.

"It's a long-term project and I think the Argentine public will react very well, especially
those looking for a more product-based coffee experience. Valdez offers a coffee making experience far superior to that of any US brand, "said Rios, who said the channel's prices would be market-ready and target a" middle-clbad "audience.

"We have a very cool, but conservative strategy, we want to know the market and grow in a profitable way, not to promote accelerated expansion," said Sebastián Mejía, international director of Juan Valdez stores, who was looking forward to to that they allow Reacsa alters the gastronomic offer of the stores to adapt them to the habits of consumption of the Argentines, which could appear in their menus alfajores and grilled.

Juan Valdez is present in 13 countries and has 10,500 million customers a year. Although its stores are located in the United States, Spain and Malaysia, its strongest expansion is in Latin America, where it is already present with 32 stores in Chile, 35 in Ecuador and Paraguay, Peru in Bolivia, Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama. "We have always been interested in Argentina and we have been trading for years," said Mejía. "Regardless of the current situation, companies must continue and we are banking on the country."