From Butcher Shop to Beef Giant: Brazil JBS Moves to the Top

Wesley Batista was only eighteen years old when he was given a huge responsibility. While most teens his age usually aspire to have their own car, Wesley had been given the task of managing a meat packing facility. After twenty years, the Brazilian now does so much more. At thirty eight years old, he now fully runs most United States operations of the biggest beef producing facility called Brazil’s JBS.

It’s a Family Thing

One can pretty much say that this kind of meat business is in their family, as his brother Joesly is also the chief executive officer working at JBS. Both men had dropped out during their college years and had early on learned to master such a trade, as they followed the path which their father, Jose Batista Sobrinho, had done. The elder Jose had successfully grown such an empire from a mere butcher shop. Their company is situated in the financial capital of Brazil, which is located in Sao Paulo. Their family controlled company had surprised a lot of analysts because of some announcements that were made regarding their intent to get some major acquisitions. Among those included the National Beef Packing Co LLC as well as the beef unit of the company Smithfield Foods Inc. Both companies are located in the United States as well as Tasman Group in Australia, respectively.

Intentions in the Beef Industry

The company JBS also announced during the previous week that it had intended to abandon their plans of purchasing National Beef. National Beef is the fourth ranked producer of beef in the United States. This came after it was mentioned by the Justice Department that some of the plants had to be put up for sale. Such an acquisition might have made their company the number one ranked beef processor in the United States – a significant jump from the current third place. It was only a couple of years ago that their company had been known in regions outside of Brazil, although it traces its roots to the 1950s.

During that time, the senior Batista had purchased cows in Goias state located in central Brazil and then selling it to the meatpackers. It was in 1957 when he saw a good opportunity to work with the planned construction of the new capital of Brazil, which was Brasilia – and therefore sought to become one of the very first regional slaughterhouses. Initially, he just had around twenty five to thirty animals each day but it grew as time went on. As it was able to aggressively acquire its rivals and put up a chain of plants, the company was able to benefit from a low grain price up until the year 2005.