The most traditional manufacturer of metal packaging in the country celebrates its centenary with constant evolution and reinvention, keeping up with market demands
On June 24th, we celebrate the centenary of the General Assembly that officially founded the most traditional metal packaging factory in Brazil, CMP.
In a country in which 70% of companies close their doors before completing ten years of activity (according to IBGE data), reaching the centenary is a rarity. In the case of CMP – originally named Companhia Metalgraphica Paulista, with the spelling of that time – it is a demonstration of the potential and resilience of Brazilian entrepreneurs, and how evolution and adaptation to new realities are essential points for the longevity of companies.
The CMP began in the interior of Minas Gerais, in Andrelândia. The founder, Lincoln de Azevedo, belonged to a family of farmers and identified the opportunity to produce gallons and cans of butter, necessary to preserve the product at a time when there were no refrigerators. He invited a group of friends and relatives to invest and got the business off the ground.
A few months after the founding, he decided to transfer the factory to São Paulo, where the largest market in the country was located. He chose to install the production line in the Mooca neighborhood, where it would remain until 2013, when the company moved its facilities to an industrial complex with cutting-edge technology in Cajamar, in the Metropolitan Region. In São Paulo, in the Butantã neighborhood, the administrative headquarters were located.
The company's history is intertwined with the history of packaging technology. At the time of its founding, much of the work was manual, with simple machines, and the cans were soldered using a lead alloy, which would be banned years later, when it was discovered that the substance was harmful to health. Today welding is done electrically, without the use of chemical substances.
In its existence, CMP has survived moments that caused the bankruptcy of so many companies. The Great Depression of 1929. The Second World War. Several Brazilian economic crises – and a pandemic. Over the decades, the company's shareholding composition also changed – minority participants began selling their shares, and today it belongs entirely to the family of José Villela de Andrade Neto, grandson of the founder.
During this century, reinvention was the name of the game. CMP was initially created to produce cans for butter, packaging that was very modern at the time. However, when plastic packaging arrived, and butter was replaced by margarine, this market shrank and CMP reinvented itself, starting to produce cans for cooking oil – made from soybeans, corn and peanuts, among others. However, in the 90s, vegetable oils started to be sold in PET bottles. The conclusion of the CMP directors was that the solution would be to reinvent itself again. The path came in the production of cans for the paint and varnish industry, which today represent around 70% of the company's demand.
To take advantage of the opportunities, CMP invested in new units in various parts of the country, where there was demand. It already had factories in Morro Agudo (SP), Campo Grande (MS), later deactivated. Today, in addition to Cajamar (SP), it has a unit in Anápolis (GO), focusing on the production of cans for foods such as tomatoes, corn and hearts of palm. And Módulo Rio, in Barra do Piraí (RJ), a joint venture with Módulo Embalagens, another large company in the sector.
Over these 100 years, around 10 billion cans have passed through CMP's machinery. This production required 800 thousand tons of steel, of which it is estimated that around 450 thousand tons were recycled. To get an idea of the scale of this production, it is estimated that it required around 490 million square meters of tinplate, the steel sheet used as raw material. It is enough to cover twice the entire surface of the state of São Paulo.
To record the date – and the history of the company, throughout the four generations that have passed through its management – CMP launched a book recounting its saga from its founding to the present day. “A centenary is a date that deserves to be celebrated with our employees, partners and customers, to remember everything we experienced in the past and also project the future”, says the president of the Board of Directors, José Villela de Andrade Neto.
The company celebrated its anniversary at an event on May 9th, at Solar Fábio Prado, the former Museu da Casa Brasileira, in São Paulo. The ceremony, with 350 guests, was presented by Juliana Veiga and had a show by singer Claudia Gomes. With a dinner prepared by chef Morena Leite, from the Capim Santo restaurant, she brought together representatives of the largest companies in the paint and chemical segment in the country, and some major players in the food segment, as well as representatives of entities in the sector, such as Prolata and Abeaço.
