The original impetus for this diversification came in 1980, when the Hering group acquired the Seara meat-packing business for the purpose of marketing slaughtered chickens and pigs that had been raised on Ceval's soybean meal. Three years later, it bought another meat-packing plant, a large chicken producer, and a Swift Armour pork slaughterhouse. By 1990, Ceval was processing seven million chickens a month as well as three million hogs, making it the nation's third-largest pork producer. It was also processing four million metric tons of soybeans a year. In 1989, Ceval opened a $24-million margarine plant in Gaspar, and in 1991 a $60-million facility in Rondonópolis, Mato Grosso, for soybean cooking oil.
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How To Write A Strategic Plan: A Simple Outline Companhia Hering, in early 1991, transformed itself into a new holding company consisting of only two units: Ceval Alimentos and Hering Têxtil. All three, the holding company and the two subsidiary units, made an initial public offering of shares on the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange in 1994. Several layers of administration were eliminated, and as many as 2,000 staffers lost their jobs. Some internal tasks were farmed out, such as the manufacture of specialized products and the transport of cargo between affiliates of the company. Others were completely eliminated, as Hering found that in many cases the same work was being duplicated within the organization. Each subsidiary, for example, had its own production planning unit even though there was a central unit for this purpos ...