Legend has it that at the age of 26 and 27 the brothers Cosme and Alberto Torrado insisted so much on obtaining the Domino’s Pizza franchise, that the chain granted it to them despite being granted them. a bad check.

They were the children of a powerful textile industrialist, they were students of the best colleges and universities in Mexico and completed their studies at Harvard. But in the enterprise, the Torrados started on their owndistributing pizza alone on a motorbike, from the small club in the colorful town of San Angel in Mexico City.

Then they added Armando, the youngest of the family. And, yes, they managed to bring the steaming pizza home. That was the recipe, they say, for exponential growth.

Alsea Holding

Today I am the kings of franchises in the world, manage the holding company Alsea is listed on the New York and Mexico stock exchanges and they license glittering food brands like Starbucks and Burger King. Globally they have 4,299 establishments including cafes, fast food restaurants or restaurants for families.

They arrived in the country in 2006 while maintaining the Burger King license. A year later they landed with Starbucks. They represent 131 Starbucks stores and 114 Burger King stores.

Armando is currently visiting Argentina, its third market in the region. And it comes with no complaints: the coffee they use at Starbucks, the roasted onecomes without obstacles. They have had some delays with the special machines made in Switzerland, but “that’s not a reason for complaint,” they say. 95% of its inputs are local and some are exported to Chile like the fries of Argentine vendors.

The youngest of the Torrado is described as a fan of investment-based efficiency to innovate. It fixes on costs at the point where it always travels low cost lines. Emphasize that the challenges are permanent and the answer it is transformation and adaptation. All the more so now that the world is experiencing slower growth due to rising rates.

The weight of Argentina in business

They ensure it from herethey have never been able to repatriate the profits and that of high inflation, fueled this year in his case by the international price of coffee which has doubled– they fight it as they can and resigning the margins.

This region represents 20% of Alsea’s revenues, Mexico 40% and Europe 40%.

Santiago Farinati, 44, with a degree in Administration, is its CEO in the Southern Cone. When he started at Burger King, he used to dress to bring more customers to the premises. Today he spends half of his time in Chile and the other in Argentina.

When asked about the differences between the countries, he blurts out: “The movement in Argentina is phenomenal, not to mention the complexity involved in operating, comparing it to Uruguay or Chile, which are more stable and predictable economies, where the rules are clearer. But the business in Argentina is big, it accounts for 60%. Each shop is a small SME: in Argentina, a Starbucks employs 20 people; a Burger King, 50 “. They will invest $ 30 million.

Farinati admits that although Argentina feeds billing, Chile, due to its lower tax burden (28% versus 45% if all taxes are added here), accounts for 60% of profits. “We cannot ignore the tax burden”Says Torrado.

In Argentina, 35% of revenue comes from the office area and this slow recovery means that the business is 85% of what it was revenue in the pre-pandemic period. Curiously, despite the fact that Burger King closed its iconic Florida location due to “excessive rent of US $ 80,000,” it accounts for the majority of billing in the country.

Being operators themselves, they have turned to the renovation of most of the premises. Of course, the strategy is different in Chile and Uruguay with an aggressive policy of openings. This is not a trivial matter.