Once upon a time Italian immigrant Francesco Matarazzo arrived in Brazil. He likely never imagined the empire he would build. Today we stand before what remains of the Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo.
The Indústrias Reunidas Fábricas Matarazzo or IRFM was once the largest business group in Latin America. It was headquartered right here in São Paulo. At its peak, the Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo employed about 6% of the city’s population.
Francesco Matarazzo founded it in 1911. He rose from farmer to peddler. Matarazzo eventually became the richest man in Brazil.
Matarazzo started small. He opened a commercial house that sold lard in Sorocaba. By the 1940s, his group included more than 350 companies. These spanned food, textiles, beverages and transport. They also included ports, railways, shipyards, metallurgy, agriculture, energy, banking and real estate.
The Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo’s success stemmed from Matarazzo’s business philosophy. He believed a good deal is made in the purchase not in the sale. He continuously expanded his manufacturing units and product range.
In 1920, the industrial complex of Água Branca opened. It covered 100000 square meters in São Paulo’s west zone. Immense brick chimneys characterized the site. They could be seen from hundreds of meters away. It was the first industrial park in São Paulo with verticalized production.
The Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo included factories for sawmills and refineries. There were also distillers and slaughterhouses. Soap, perfume, fertilizer, candle, nail and liquor factories were on site. Workers’ villages, warehouses and a bank completed the complex. The Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo even had its own power plant.
The products from Indústrias Reunidas Francesco Matarazzo were part of daily life for almost all Brazilians. Its revenue was only smaller than the Federal Government. It also trailed the National Coffee Department and the State of São Paulo.
Francesco Matarazzo died in 1937. He was the fifth richest man in the world. His net worth was about 20 billion dollars in today’s money.
His son Francesco Matarazzo Júnior took over. He expanded the Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo into chemicals, food and alcohol. New products included cellulose, cellophane, cookies and margarine. They also made carbon sulfide, castor oil and insecticides.
However, the Antiga Fabrica da Matarazzo began to decline in the 1960s. Pressure from multinational companies affected sales. The company experienced its first negative balance.
In 1983, the group tried to avoid bankruptcy but failed. The IRFM was deep in debt. Many buildings were seized including the Água Branca industrial park. In 2013, the second to last plant closed in São Paulo.
Today the Indústrias Reunidas Fábricas Matarazzo is a memory. Yet its legacy remains visible. It reminds us of Brazil’s industrial might. It also reminds us of the man who made it all possible.