The empanadas business changes hands: El Noble has been sold

El Noble, the brand that was born as the emblem of empanadas and then spread to other foods, changed owner again. Gabriel Badaloni – director of Andesmar – is the brand new owner, with a partner he has not identified. He also did not declare the amount of the transaction, but the company was heavily in debt.

“We started running the business today,” Badaloni explained. Although his family is part of Andesmar, this acquisition is done alone with his partner. They already have experience in other gastronomic companies. To have the coffee brand “El Continente”

The brand called El Noble was originally called El Noble Repulgue, synonymous with empanadas. It was born from an SME, where it gained some popularity, although its owner almost went bankrupt at a given moment, in the context of successive local macroeconomic crises.

It is, at least, the fourth owner of El Noble in less than two decades. The brand, dispersed in nearly a hundred franchises, has debts with its suppliers. From the original empanadas, it was made into frozen food and even sold ice cream.

“We are going to reposition ourselves very strongly in the empanadas segment, with a quality product that will not target an ABC1 audience,” Badaloni described.

“It’s a product that allows us to work a lot with the country’s brand, because we think about it for export. The country has advantages in food production, you have to have potential and expand sales channels, both through exports and on the local market, ”he explained.

The first stage of the take-off of El Noble Repulgue came from the hands of Cepas. It is in the family that marketed brands like Gancia, Soon Cinzano developed a thriving food and drink business.

Before this entry of Cepas, the brand was offered to dozens of private investors. Some did and got out on time, and with a good difference.

After Cepas, the next stage of development it was by Gabriel Nazar.

Nazar, who had one of the post-convertibility textile successes, with “Cardón” bought “El Noble Repulgue” in 2009 for four million dollars. One of his first decisions was to rename it “El Noble”, to remove the exclusive component of the empanadas and launch frozen, even for export.

But Nazar also completed his cycle in 2017 and transferred the shares to the management of the company. This way they took it Mariano Castagnaro, Walter Montagner and Daniel Cavazzani (Father of Maxi, founder of the game Trivia Crack). El Noble had a production capacity of 8.5 million empanadas per month, making it the largest in the world.

With cakes, pizzas, crisps, stuffed breads, sandwiches, this management had 80 different products including 28 flavors of empanadas and 10 of cakes, El Noble promised another rebirth. But, in 2020, These owners and former managers have also started to explore an outlet.

Badaloni announced today its acquisition. In a group of directors of corporate communications (a space he shares with his peers), he is as a representative of Andesmar (where he will continue), but there he anticipated that a new destination would have him. waited as an entrepreneur for his own project.