Beja: “Oh Evaristo! You have it…… olives and oil?!". Businessman invests in store.
It was the covid-19 pandemic that led Daniel Evaristo to diversify the business and open a store in Beja. “Oh Evaristo” is the brand and name of the establishment.
Daniel Evaristo, 31 year old
Food industry businessman
Naturalness: Lausanne (Switzerland) and Residence: Serpa
Despite being born in Lausanne (Switzerland), where the parents were emigrated, “I was always Portuguese and from Serpa”, says young Daniel Evaristo with pride, who remembers that a father's illness caused, at the end of the decade 90, the family has returned to the then “Vila Branca”.
In 2003, to stay active, Bento Evaristo, Daniel's father, started making canned olives, some to give to friends, others to sell. In the following year it records the activity, starts supplying restaurants in the region, draining three tons of olives.
At Herdade da Fornalinha, Serpa, in 2007 first investment in a canning olive packaging plant. They are 300 thousand euros, supported by PRODER and with quality there is a greater demand.
With 25 years and with the Marketing course in hand, Daniel joins the company and creates the brand “Oh Evaristo”, then a new investment, this time in the automation of lines for glass packaging. Without project, Daniel goes into his own pocket and spends 175.000 euros.
“By nature I like challenges and I'm an adventurer, but with your feet on the ground ”, says the young businessman, revealing that 2019, “It was an exceptional year”, justifying that in the main national food sector show (SISAB), “We won gold medals with preserved olives and oregano and sold a lot of product”, finished.
Only in packaged olives, seasoned with water, shall, oregano and bay leaf, last year the company sold 270 tons. As own production does not arrive, acquire from neighboring farmers, through certain forms of production. In the estate there is a harvest, not wheat or barley, but of oregano, with one hectare, in other words, a football field.
Daniel Evaristo manages a team of six employees and two interns, scattered among the field, to factory, the distribution warehouse, the office and a newly opened neighborhood grocery store, spaces that spread between Serpa, Alfundão (Ferreira do Alentejo) and Beja.
“The pandemic was tough in terms of billing in the catering, one of our strengths, but it made me see a business opportunity, a neighborhood grocery store. In April we were forced to stop the factory and we all came to Beja to create the store. There was no one for lay-off or unemployment ”, says proud Daniel.
To brand “Oh Evaristo” also produces olive oil, tremoços, jams and rosemary honey, in a “diversification for the company's sustainability”, justifies the young businessman. With distribution in Lisbon and all districts south of the Tagus, also for large surfaces, the company exports olives and oregano to Germany, Switzerland and Macau.
Aware of the difficulties of the times and the uncertainty of the future, Daniel will launch a new sales tool in the coming days, the Evaristo.pt Group online store, with home deliveries in Beja and neighboring villages and will post and express parcels throughout the country.
Teixeira Correia
(journalist)
