Pan’s factory gave sweets to children and spread the smell of chocolate in the neighborhood – 02/25/2023 – Market

The neighborhood of Santa Paula is known today for being one of the noblest regions of São Caetano do Sul (SP) and the entire ABC region of São Paulo. But until a few years ago, anyone walking through its streets, at any time of day, would smell chocolate.

This is what residents living near the Chocolate Pan factory (acronym for National Food Products) report. Founded in the 1930s, the company was one of the biggest candy manufacturers in the country until the end of the last century.

Those who lived closely during Pan’s most prosperous times relate its decline to the more recent changes that São Caetano and especially the neighborhood where the factory is located have gone through.

A few days before Carnival, Pan, which had been in judicial recovery since 2021, filed for self-bankruptcy in court. Over the last few years, the company has made many layoffs, and the factory is in a state of disrepair.

But it is possible to see that Pan’s history is very present in the memory of its neighbors. According to the Fundação Pró-Memória de São Caetano do Sul, the neighborhood of Santa Paula was made official by the city hall in 1968. But the inauguration of the General Motors factory, in 1930, began to bring progress to the region.

However, urban improvements happened very slowly. Helena Damianovici, 60, was born in the Santa Paula neighborhood. She remembers how the region was in her childhood.

“My father arrived in Brazil at the age of 14, fleeing the Second World War. He worked at GM. I remember that, in my childhood, there were still many dirt streets, many big houses”, says Damianovici, who today works as a beautician in a salon in in front of the Pan factory.

She went through the phase when Pan distributed chocolates to children who passed by the factory around festive dates, such as Easter and Christmas. “I loved the honey bread, it was delicious.”

GM’s presence brought economic strength to the neighborhood and to the city itself. But Damianovici claims that the affective memories are linked to the candy factory. “The neighborhood grew a lot because of Pan as well. It was an attraction, there were school trips that came from various places to visit the factory”, he says.

The owner of another business next to Pan, who prefers not to be identified, says that in the 1980s, the factory worked in three shifts and the neighborhood was busy 24 hours a day.

She says that on Fridays, employees would have a barbecue at her establishment after the end of the day. According to the trader, they stayed there until approximately 10 pm, and then went on to their homes, in other cities in the ABC region, or even in the capital.

An old resident of the neighborhood says she misses the “smell of chocolate” that came out of the factory. For her, the main concern is the destination that will be given to the land where Pan is installed today. She says that the neighborhood already has many buildings, and that the ideal would be to build a park on the land.

Impactful start

If for most people over 40 years of age the great memory related to Pan is the chocolate cigarettes, for those who lived in São Paulo in the 1930s the brand is related to the impactful announcement of the inauguration.

As the company itself tells on its website, an announcement made in a newspaper of great circulation at the time called for the launch of a rocket that would be launched to the moon, on December 12, 1935.

As the announcement did not specify the launch site, a crowd gathered at Campo de Marte, an airport located in the north of São Paulo. But nothing happened. “The next day, it was reported that the rocket represented Pan’s products that were coming to market”, says the company.

The chocolate cigarette was one of the first products manufactured by Pan, along with Paulistinha candies and chocolate bars in square, fish and cigar shapes.

According to a report by Carlos Alberto de Oliveira in the magazine Raízes, by the Fundação Pró-Memória de São Caetano, engineers Aldo Aliberti and Oswaldo Falchero, who were brothers-in-law, bought a vacant lot of 4 thousand square meters, without any structure, to raise the factory .

Pan began a more industrial production in 1936, and according to Oliveira’s account, the workers were mostly Spanish immigrants living in the vicinity of the factory.

Oliveira says that in 1976, Pan reached the capacity to produce 7 tons of sweets per day. With the reformulation of packaging, the factory sold more than 3,000 boxes of chocolates per day. The company was the leader in billing in the Brazilian market until 1984.

The beginning of the end

Another neighbor of the Pan factory, who has been in the neighborhood for 12 years, says that the company was already showing signs of decay long before the judicial recovery.

According to this resident, even before the pandemic, it was already possible to notice that the movement in the factory was not great. He claims that the Pan store, which is next to the main entrance to the factory, closed at the beginning of the pandemic, and has not opened since.

The store is completely emptied, with only plastic tables and chairs piled up, plus a few other items.

According to this resident, the movement of the factory gradually decreased, before stopping completely, about a year ago.

On a visit to the site last Wednesday (22), it was possible to verify the arrival of a few employees. There was no sign of production at the factory, and the abandoned appearance of the premises was visible even from the outside.

For Helena Damianovici, the recent change in the profile of the neighborhood, and the high taxes charged by the City of São Caetano contributed to the decline of Pan.

“I know people who used to live in Perdizes, Moema, upscale neighborhoods in São Paulo, who moved here. Despite being expensive by São Caetano standards, it is still cheaper than living in the capital. In the case of Pan, taxes too high got in the way, no doubt.”

Another resident confirms that taxes in the region have increased a lot in recent years, making the neighborhood one of the most expensive in the ABC region.

Locals describe São Caetano as a “dorm town” these days. For Damianovici, this more distant relationship and the change in profile of the neighborhood itself contributed to cool the relationship between the candy factory and the population.

For the shopkeeper who lives next to the factory, the decay of the factory doesn’t make much difference. She says she felt a drop in traffic for a while, but the construction of new buildings and condominiums quickly made up for the lack of Pan.

The Municipality of São Caetano was approached to comment on the allegations of residents of the Santa Paula neighborhood, but did not respond until the publication of this text. Pan was sought and also did not manifest itself.

What is self-bankruptcy?

The most recent chapter in Pan’s history is the filing for self-bankruptcy, made on February 13th. Thomaz Santana, partner at the PGLaw office, explains that the instrument means that the company declares that it is no longer able to continue operating.

“Bankruptcy can be filed by a creditor, by a partner of the company and by the company itself. And the latter is the case of Pan. From what it seems, it went down that path because of tax debts”, says Santana.

For the expert, the greatest chance is that the judge declares Pan bankrupt. Thereafter, the company ceases its activities, the facilities are sealed, the assets are sold and the funds raised are distributed to creditors, in the order established by law.

This distribution follows an order very similar to the judicial recovery. Workers, micro and small entrepreneurs have priority in receiving, in that order. Afterwards, creditors who do not have a real guarantee, such as banks and suppliers, are assisted. Tax debts come fourth on the priority list.

According to information from sources with knowledge of Pan’s situation, the debt with the city government exceeds R$ 8 million. The oldest debt is from 2010.

Also according to this source, Pan did not join an installment program launched by the City of São Caetano in 2017, and which is reopened annually. The program gives a 100% discount on the fine and interest on the original debt.