[News] Unifood seeks to avoid the bankruptcy of Pedro, Juan and Diego: blame the “combo” social outbreak and pandemic

[FNX Magokiler]

The company requested a reorganization process to avoid the bankruptcy of the fast food chain. This request is added to another similar one to avoid the fall of Savory. Unifood operates various brands, with Santander Chile bank, Bidvest and Comercial CCU as PJ & D's main creditors. The company attributes its financial problems to the social outbreak of 2019 and the pandemic, and is exploring various options to stay afloat, including renegotiation of contracts and the closure of unprofitable premises.

After denouncing the negative effects of a “combo” that includes the pandemic and the social outbreak, the gastronomic conglomerate Unifood, one of the largest in the country and owned by the investment fund Mesoamérica based in Costa Rica, submitted a request to court to initiate a reorganization procedure for its fast food chain Pedro, Juan y Diego (PJ & D).

The request marks the second reorganization process that Unifood has requested for one of its brands in just a week. Previously, the company had required a judicial refinancing process to avoid the meltdown of Ice Cream SpA, the company that operates the well-known Savory ice cream parlors. This process has no relationship with the company manufacturing the products, which belongs to the multinational Nestlé.

According to Diario Financiero, the Pedro, Juan y Diego fast food chain, under the control of Unifood through the company Cuatro SpA.

 

 

Currently operates 58 stores in shopping centers throughout Chile, employing 640 workers. The liabilities of this chain amount to more than $17,149 million, and the main creditors include the Santander Chile bank, Bidvest (distributor of potato chips) and Comercial CCU. According to the aforementioned media, these liabilities are added to those of Ice Cream SpA, which exceed $15 billion. The main creditors of this ice cream chain, which operates 117 stores and employs 818 people, include Scotiabank, Nestlé Chile and Santander Chile.

Unifood, under the control of Mesoamérica since 2016, manages not only the ice cream parlors and the Pedro, Juan y Diego brand, but also the Pollo Stop and XS Market chains.

“Combo” social outbreak and pandemic
In its reorganization requests, Unifood management, advised by lawyer Ricardo Reveco de Carey, has pointed out the social outbreak and the pandemic as the main causes of the financial problems faced by its chains.

In reference to Pedro, Juan and Diego, the company has stated that “despite its recognized track record, the company's commercial activity was affected due to factors totally unrelated to the business, its control and of a totally exceptional nature, such as the outbreak "social crisis and the demonstrations that took place during the last quarter of 2019 and the knock-on effects of the Pandemic (Covid-19), which prevented its normal development and the fulfillment of its business projections and financial commitments with creditors and suppliers."

 

https://www.elmostrador.cl/mercados/2023/10/02/unifood-busca-evitar-la-quiebra-de-pedro-juan-y-diego-culpa-al-combo-estallido-social-y-pandemia/