One of the maxims in the business world is: “What has brought you here is not what will take you later.” (), light and heavy vehicle dealers network, which is part of the Simpar () group, the phrase has translated into a change in the leadership of the company announced today (3) in a relevant fact.
In a council meeting that took place on Monday (2), the departure of Antonio da Silva Barreto Júnior from the company’s presidency and the arrival of Sebastián Dario Los, executive of Argentina, with a long career in food retail. The change will be made on June 30, when Barreto passes the staff to the successor.
Although it seems a sudden change, the succession was tied behind the scenes a few months ago, according to the Infomoney. Barreto had been simpar for six years and, in the last three, led the mergers and acquisition operations and, later, the split process of Vai () that resulted in the creation of car as it is today: with 35 brands in the portfolio between light vehicles, trucks, machines and equipment and 192 stores spread across all regions of the country.
The company raised the company to the status of a natural consolidator into an extremely sprayed market and has transformed the company into the largest dealership network in Brazil.
Now, however, the challenge is different: revisiting all processes, gathering CNPJs, applying innovation and artificial intelligence to the business as a whole and extracting maximum operational and result efficiency. “This is a movement that was already aligned with the strategy,” says a market source.
Succession process
In the succession process, Sebastián was not a single candidate, but emerged in the face of competition after a few rounds of conversations -which involved Barreto himself -as well as visits to stores.
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For Simpar, more than experience in the automotive industry, what told was the history of customer relationship and tight margins.
With over 25 years of retail experience, being the last 22 in the Cencosud Group, of which the last 6 years acting as CEO, the executive who takes the main chair in Automob “contributed to organic, inorganic growth as well as the implementation of the company’s e-commerce platform, currently with 375 supermarkets in 9 states and 22,000 employees in Brazil,” according to the relevant fact. Graduated in Accounting from the University of Buenos Aires, Sebastián also occupies, since May 2025, the position of independent counselor of the GPA group.
For Barreto, the destination after the transition is not yet right, but there are conversations in progress to maintain some kind of future partnership with the group. “The moment of the company is now to take the foundations of what was built and start a new cycle,” says the source.
