In the window of Faria Lima, a trendy and busy avenue in the capital of São Paulo, the chocolate It may seem like just another premium product. But behind Dengo there is a model of business that defies traditional industry logic and starts long before the store.
The company founded in 2017 by Guilherme Leal and Estevan Sartoreli was born with the clear proposal of paying more to the producer and delivering real chocolate, with higher quality, to the consumer. A criterion that, according to Sartoreli, is not cost, but strategy.
“Our main purpose is to generate decent income for small and medium-sized producers. I am a son of the farm, I came from the countryside, from a family that has always been very connected to agricultural production. I always had the desire to undertake an impactful business, but I had no idea what I was going to do”, recalls Estevan Sartoreli in an interview with From Zero to Topa program that tells stories of successful entrepreneurs.
After years in the corporate world, including a stint at Natura, the entrepreneur decided he wanted to build something with real impact. It was when studying the cocoa chain in southern Bahia that the insight to invest in a model that connected better remuneration in the field with a superior product at the end emerged.
“The first element of a quality chocolate is to ensure that it has a higher concentration of cocoa, because when cocoa goes in, sugar comes out. And a healthy diet requires us to understand this”, says the founder.
During Easter week, the main date for chocolate consumption in Brazil, the From Zero to Top visited one of Dengo’s stores, in São Paulo, to talk to Estevan Sartoreli, co-founder of Dengo and understand closely how the brand was born and this business model behind its growth.
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Impact that generates results
Dengo’s logic starts from the beginning of the chain, at the rural producer. By paying more for quality cocoa, the company seeks to transform both the reality of those who work with it and the final product.
“We started by inviting around 200 producers. Three to six showed up. And it was with these that we started the network. And the first invoices started to circulate like a trophy, because they had never seen that price”, recalls Sartoreli.
An impact, according to him, that goes beyond income. This model also supports the product’s value proposition.
“More than 60% to 70% of producers already have a decent income. It’s the beginning of the journey, but decent income is the main vector for restoring pride and transforming the chain”, says Estevan.
Another strong point of the brand is its defense of quality. In practice, this means going against the grain of the industry, maintaining more expensive ingredients and less industrialized processes even under cost pressure.
This logic is also connected to the conceptbean to bar (from grain to bar) adopted by the company, which continues to expand its operations, with around 60 stores in Brazil and an international presence.
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“The brands bean to bar They fully maintain cocoa butter throughout the entire process. This may not seem like much, but it makes a big difference. The most noble item in the cocoa-chocolate chain is cocoa butter, and it is exactly this that the large industry suppresses throughout the process”, explains the executive.
To find out more details about Dengo’s trajectory, see the full episode on . The program is available in its podcast version on the main streaming platforms such as , , , and
About From Zero to Top
The Do Zero ao Topo podcast is a production of InfoMoney and brings, every week, the stories of prominent women and men in the Brazilian market to tell their story, sharing the biggest challenges faced along the way and the main strategies used in building the business.
