Bom Bril

[LAIST Tour Begins, Fazenda Tozan, Churrascaria – Nova Pampa, Port of Santos, Deloitte, Embraer, Natura, Gol de Letra, Bom Bril, Agencia Click, Nextel Institute, May 6, Rio, Rio Weekend, Petrobras, PREVI]

Gustavo Ramos, former UofT Engineering student (class of ’95) and Columbia MBA (’01) and CEO of Bom Bril, gave us a presentation on his involvement in the company since arriving in 2006 and finding Bom Bril, a leading manufacturer of consumer products, on the verge of bankruptcy and in receivership with the government. Bom Bril had delayed payables such as wages to employees and had not paid any taxes. The largest liability was to the government in the form of unpaid tax.

Having never worked in a distressed company before, Gustavo smiles as he recalls how he approached the problem: His professor at Columbia had said that gold rule of finance: “Cash is king”.

With his work cut out for him, Gustavo started to fix the problems, first by negotiating a 15 year payment schedule to alleviate the government debt. He proceeded to adjust prices and margins on products, renegotiate with suppliers (focusing on the value of Bom Bril to the industry as an ongoing concern) to reduce working capital and cutting marketing spending.

Gustavo generally tried to insulate the end consumer from the financial problems at Bom Bril as well as the lower level employees (no layoffs). When asked if Bom Bril was ever a takeover target, he mentioned the 2001 attempt by Clorox to take over Bom Bril which fell through when Clorox balked at the liabilities on their balance sheet at the due diligence stage.

In my opinion, I think this was a very bold strategy that worked for Bom Bril and reminds me of our Coca Cola case that we had with Anita McGahan in Strategy I, when we were talking about the intangible value of Coca Cola and why that couldn’t be duplicated by Sir Richard Branson in his attempt to introduce Virgin Cola. Although Virgin Cola’s annual spend on marketing was equal to Coca Cola, Coke had built up a tremendous amount of brand equity over its history dating back to world wars and that wasn’t going to be reproduced over night. In the same way, I expect that Bom Bril’s strong brand equity allowed them to coast briefly as Gustavo put their ship back in order. Either way, it was a bold move which has been attributed to the companies turn around.

With the return of Bom Bril to profitable status (with 40% growth and a 17% EBITDA margin), Gustavo laid out his plans for the future of Bom Bril:

• Remodel product lines – expand, change formulas, improve the packaging
• Launch new product categories – clothing care, silver and brass polish with all new products branded with Bom Bril
• Heavily reinvest in marketing to make up for lost time – Launching new brands and supporting old ones. Having a spend that focuses on the Point of Sale rather than just mass marketing. Marketing is budgeted at 5% of sales

He also explained how Brazil’s market for Consumer Product Goods (CPGs) are different than in Canada. Where we are familiar with large distributors and retailers (such as Tesco, Carrefour, Loblaws, Walmart, etc. which only account for 15% of Brazil’s CPG market) where we drive our cars to the store, Brazilians walk to the local mom and pop shop and distributors have a much more difficult time managing the various touch points.

He acknowledges the 3 most important factors for CPG: Brand equity, distribution channels and low cost / scale.

Recently, Bom Bril’s new found success has increased its appetite for acquisitions, having purchased Lysoform, a European disinfection product to add to its repertoire of products. Bom Bril continues to expand, looking for acquisitions or partners who are leaders in niche categories to fill the blanks in their portfolio.

In understanding Bom Bril’s business, we learned about the exclusive nature of relationships with Bom Bril’s distribution network and the economies of scale achieved with non-competitive products where the high costs of the fragmented distribution network could be shared with partners like Kraft.

Their COGS are generally (80 to 85%) composed of raw material costs and they are therefore sensitive to changes in the price of iron ore, the primary ingredient of their flagship “Bom Bril” product, an inexpensive steel wool whose name is almost generisized in the same way as Kleenex and Band-Aid.

Bom Bril is also the first company to release a line of eco products in Brazil: “Ecobril”. Their ideology has been successful on the premise that performance and cost (retail price) are the primary drivers of success in this CPG space, and ecologically friendly is a tertiary concern. This caps their price of their products at 10 to 20% MAX above the price of their normal products. However, by balancing these pillars, they have had success beyond other entrants into the eco space. They also focus on the 4 R’s, which are the 3 R’s we are used to plus “Respect for Biodiversity” which acknowledges their use of natural raw materials versus synthetic and no animal testing.

Another interesting story about Bom Bril’s EcoBril line is that some of the products have the options of buying refills. The irony is at this stage, the cost to manufacture the refill is almost the same as the original packed bottle (due to low economies of scale), however, the nature of the business is to charge 30% less. With increased economies of scale, Bom Bril expects to bring this price down making eco refills more attractive as a product line to Bom Bril in the long run.

Bom Bril’s history is quite fascinating and integrated into the social fabric of Brazil as a staple CPG company and product. Mr. Bom Bril, played by Carlos Moreano, is a local celebrity how has the accolade of being the longest running ad campaign series as noted in the 1995 Guiness Book of World Records.The visit to Bom Bril concluded with a walk through their factory (no photos permitted), but it was interesting to see the unique history (and plans for the future) of the company.