Esteban Wolf is directing today Persicco, Chocorísimo and Guapaletas, Brands of Ice cream which have a total of more than 80 branches in Argentina, companies with a presence in Chile, Peru, Mexico and Spain and plan to land in Colombia. Her story began at the age of 18, plagued by family debt and a chain of debts Entrepreneurship which have not been consolidated to date. How did he do it?
As a teenager, he began to take on financial responsibilities, which were exacerbated when his father was arrested for the third time, leaving him $150,000 in debt. He tried to sell the family car to cover part of the amount, but discovered he had duplicate documents. So, received unexpected help: An uncle in Australia sent him the money to pay off the debt and a container of shirts that he could sell and with the profit he made he paid off the debt. “I went to the central market, rented a small table and sold everything. That’s how I took on the debt,” he remembers.
His first company was a computer companywithout financial knowledge. He sold to companies, received a 90-day check that he never cashed and had to close. He says he learned from this experience that he needed to understand costs, fees and payment terms.
Then He started selling radio messages. He found an ad in the newspaper, contacted the parent company and offered to work on commission only. The company grew quickly, but was shut out of the market by the advent of the cell phone: it had to close five stores and lay off 30 employees. It had neither foreseen the technological impact nor had a financial cushion.
They followed him other projects: Ticket sales, 100-business photography company, computer services and a photo development company. Every initiative brought him a lesson. For the photo campaign, for example, he had not expected the reaction of the competition: Kodak launched a major campaign on the same day and his project fell into the shadows.
Later he entered the Pharmaceutical sector with a retail store and a generic pharmacy. The business grew into a company with more than 300 employees, which he later sold.
For Wolf, this conclusion meant the end of his “demo” phase: He had to prove, even within his family, that he could maintain a stable business after several failures.
How he got into the ice cream business
After selling his company, he planned his first long vacation. At a dinner with friends, the owner of Chocorísimo asked him to buy the company. He declined the offer because he already had a technology project underway. But upon his return, the same businessman contacted him again: “He told me that I had to help him.”
He began visiting the factory at midday. Lack of controls, administrative problems and production failures were identified. decided learn everything from scratch. “I have found that investing in equipment changes the hours worked,” he says. After visiting a larger factory, he closed the inherited factory and set up a new one. From there the expansion and the first exports began.
The society that didn’t work
At the beginning he agreed with his partner that they would both work every day. However, as the business grew, one day his partner decided that he had already worked a lot in his life and that he did not want to continue with the daily tasks, but just wanted to be paid as a director without working, and so it was agreed that he would receive a monthly payment as an advance on the dividend.. “He withdrew and I invested again,” summarizes Wolf. The long-term plan became untenable.
When his partner decided to move to Spain, Wolf suggested buying out his share and closing the company. Point this out It is not profitable to run a business in which one person is involved and the other is not involved.
The businessman reiterates that his focus was never on marketing, but on selling more, controlling costs and diversifying risks. “Argentina is a country where the customer can stop paying and justice does not protect you. So the defense of this model is to sell more and compensate for deviations,” he emphasizes.
To accelerate growth, sought alliances with brands that already had traffic. Chocorísimo was barely recognized and even confused; For this reason, agreements have been made with empanada, pizza and Milanese chains. Later, a conversation with Mariano Tamborini made him rethink his strategy: he needed to network with large companies and not small companies.
The challenge of entering Burger King
At their first meeting, Burger King asked him to meet U.S. quality standards. The first audit returned an “A”. Wolf called the manager that same evening: “I have a one, I need a ten,” he remembers.
He worked on the changes for a year and a half: he invested in the factory, received support from the quality team and went through numerous audits. It reached a value of 9.58 and the first sale occurred months later. “I only went on the condition that I fulfilled the requirements,” he summarizes.
The current status and value of the certification
Today Persicco, Chocorísimo and Guapaletas operate in several countries and are preparing new openings. Wolf believes that his method was based on mistakes and decisions at every stage. “Failures commanded me,” he says.
He says the audit wanted to congratulate them when they received their first certification. He replied, “Don’t congratulate me, buy me!” After passing, they were given one year to obtain the FSC 22000 when it moved to the highest level associated with bioterrorism. You did it.
This certification opened global doors for them. Wolf recalls an anecdote: When they tried to enter an Australian supermarket, they asked him about his international certification and he only mentioned RNE and Senasa. “Nothing per se,” he summarizes. Nobody answered the phone again, today with the Monday newspaper he understands them and agrees with them!
Since then he has understood that certification is the world passport. “If you are certified, any company in the world can buy from you.” With this lesson, he understood that international certification today gives every supermarket, from Carrefour Malaysia to Publix in the United States, the opportunity to validate their work on a global scale without requesting any additional documents.
How he came to buy Persicco and Guapaletas
After a meeting in Brazil, he realized that he had to stop presenting himself as a premium brand and instead act as a mainstream brand. He was looking for a partnership with a company and set his sights on Persicco. He insisted for a year and a half until he got a meeting with the owner. He told him bluntly: “I don’t have the money to buy from you. Give me the keys and 50% and tomorrow you will be profitable.” After long negotiations, they agreed to a partnership and Wolf standardized processes to limit losses.
With Guapaletas Something similar happened, but with more turbulence. The decision to partner in December, the worst month for an ice cream factory, led to operational problems. In 2024, faced with a new investment request, he again proposed repeating the Persicco model. The board objected, but Wolf devised a strategy to thwart any objection and won approval. In December the first production test failed, but in February they signed the purchase.
The entrepreneur prefers to purchase brands that are already installed. “It can take a decade for a new brand to grow and another for it to become established. It may succeed or it may never last,” he concludes. That’s why he defended keeping the name Chocorísimo, although many suggested changing it in honor of the project’s creator, Gustavo.
He admits that he does not know the chocolate business and therefore relies on buying know-how. He doesn’t want to be an ice cream or chocolate maker: he wants to learn, network and scale. He mentions the books that shaped his vision: “The Cola War (Pepsi vs Coca-Cola)” and “Rich Dad, Poor Dad,” stories that show how companies are built and strategic decisions are made.
The best trading strategy
“Without a doubt, those Associativity with different companies is the key. This way of working allows you to grow hand in hand with others. “Many people are very jealous of their product, but I believe that in order to expand it is important to do it together with allies and strategic partners,” he argues.
Some of his riskiest decisions include investing heavily in certifications without internal consensus and buying companies that are driven more by belief than data. He still doesn’t believe in success, but is striving to establish himself as a businessman: “I’m a serial rower.”
As for Argentina, it is blunt: “It is the best country in the world to live and do.” He assures that despite the crisis, now is the time to act, with working, coordinated teams and entrepreneurs who are no longer waiting for ideal conditions.
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