A Vilma Alimentos was founded in 1925 by Domenico and Giuseppina Della Costa. The Italian couple created one of the largest food industries in Brazil.
This story of huge success originated with the arrival of Italians in Brazil Domenico Della Costa, in 1923, coming from the small town of Morigerati, which is in the region of Countryside, province of Salerno, in the southwest of Italy.
In the beginning, Domingos, as he came to be called in Brazil, carried out some manufacturing and pasta marketing next to brother Giuseppe, who was already in Brazil. The following year, already properly set up, he asked his family to come from Italy.
Costa family arrives in Brazil
After 18 days of travel, on June 24, 1924, his wife Giuseppina arrived at the port of Rio de Janeiro with the children, where Domenico was waiting. The family soon boarded a train to Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais, where the Italian family chose to make their life in the new country.
With the experience gained in pasta business alongside his brother Giuseppe, the Italian Domingos decided to open with his wife Josephina, as it came to be called in Brazil, a small factory on Rua Goitacazes, in black clay, a neighborhood located on the border between the urban and suburban areas of Belo Horizonte.
It was a rented shed, where the family also lived. It was also the place where Nélide, the first daughter Italian-Brazilian of the increasingly “Brazilian” couple Domingos and Josephina. A workforce was family-owned and the flour used to make the pasta was imported from Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo, as Belo Horizonte there were no milling establishments yet.
The Vilma Alimentos brand appears
Despite initial difficulties, the handmade pasta de Italian reception gradually gained customers and, in 1927, after a lot of savings, the Costas managed to acquire a machine that produced 100 kilos of the most different types of pasta. Furthermore, the company moved to a warehouse in a central area, in Afonso Pena Avenue. Now, in addition to family work, the company had 15+ employees.
In 1937, Josephina Costa created the brand Vilma Alimentos, in honor of one of their daughters, and the couple opened their first store in Belo Horizonte, to provide an outlet for their products. Always maintaining the artisanal manufacturing, new facilities were built and production grew rapidly.
Second generation takes over the business
Just over a decade later, in 1949, the second generation of the family already took over the company: Paschoal Costa, son of Domingos and Josephina, took charge of the business and continued his parents' work.
In 1952, the factory moved to a new address in Industrial city, in the municipality of Contagem, in Minas Gerais, and the first moinho It was built.
Domingos Costa died in 1960, aged 77, in Belo Horizonte. He had time to see the fruit of labor started in that small shed begin to transform into a prosperous business in the hands of his family, who helped him build the company every step of the way.
Vilma Alimentos modernizes the factory
In the following years, Vilma Alimentos began to launch a series of brands and products in the market, which was consolidating its name as one of the leaders in the segment of pasta dough, based on the original recipe brought from Italy by Josephina.
At the beginning of the 1980s, the management of Vilma Alimentos received a new member, representing the third generation from the Costa family: Domingos Costa Neto, son of Paschoal. His priority was to transform the company into an even stronger competitor in the pasta industry.
One of his measures was to exchange all the machinery for parts Bühler, a German brand considered the Mercedes-Benz of food industry equipment. The leap in production capacity and the reduction in the loss rate wheat flour was of great relevance.
Product diversification
Furthermore, he began to invest in opening of branches, taking the first steps in the expansion of Vilma Alimentos. Today, in addition to the headquarters in Contagem-MG, the company has branches in Juiz de Fora-MG, Montes Claros-MG, Goiânia-GO, Feira de Santana-BA, Viana-ES and Rialma-GO, in addition to storage units in São Gotardo-MG and Cambé-PR.
In the 2000s, the Vilma brand was revitalized, and its main products, such as pastas, cake mixes and flours, have been renewed. And other products were launched, such as soft drink mixes, seasonings, mixes for cakes, breads, savory and pizzas.
Tragedy and new beginning
In the same period, Vilma Alimentos expanded its manufacturing yard and built the Technical Center for Product Research and Development. The company also acquired the renowned brand Pirate, traditional in the manufacture of sauces and spices in Minas Gerais.
The group also invested in silage and relationship policy with rural producers for wheat origination.
In 2012, Domingos Costa Neto, then 58 years old, died in a plane crash, who also victimized his son Gabriel Barreira Costa, aged 14, as well as two other company executives.
With this, the fourth generation ended up taking over the company, with the arrival of the brothers Patricia, Paschoal and Thiago Costa, sons of Domingos Costa Neto, being Patricia Costa appointed president of the company.
Vilma Alimentos at the forefront
The arrival of the brothers fulfilled the desire of the great-grandmother Josephina, who in 1978 had written a letter full of love to his son Paschoal and the entire family, demonstrating his desire to see the fourth generation and fruits of your day.
In October 2012, Vilma Alimentos opened its first Concept Store, a model store in its segment in the Brazilian market, reinforcing its prominent place in the market as innovative company.
In 2017, the company expanded its operations in the food market and entered the biscuit sector, upon acquiring the company Krokero – José de Paula Industry and Commerce – located in Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais.
Vilma Alimentos also has pasta with the brands Yara and with Giuseppina brand, in honor of the original name of the company's founding matriarch.
Inheritance of persistence
In total, the company has more than 1.000 products and responds to 20 thousand points of sale in the country. Its sales are concentrated in Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo, Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, where it maintains distribution branches. Its products arrive, on a smaller scale, in São Paulo, Goiás, Rio Grande do Sul and even in Amazon, among other states, with the Vilma brand or under other brands.
In 2019 the Domingos Costa Indústrias Alimentícias SA, registered name of Vilma Alimentos, earned R$907,177 million, that is, a nominal increase (without discounting inflation) of 8,79% above 2018. net profit, R $ million 126,2, was 81% higher than recorded in the previous year.
Result of the work of that Italian couple and their children, started in a rented shed on the edge of the city, in a capital that was being born in the country that had just received them, where everything was novelty and challenge. But the horizon expanded and achievements came, based on the great fighting spirit of this family of Italian immigrants.
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