They started out in college making and testing sauces. They used family recipes and experimented. As they saw that they liked them, especially the spicy passion fruit one, they started selling them to acquaintances and friends. “We saw it as an opportunity to create a business, especially when the Éxito group opened its supermarkets to us to put them on the shelves in 2015,” recalls José Ricardo Betancourt (Caldas, Antioquia, 32 years old), general manager of Vector Foods, a company based in Itagüí which in 10 years has revolutionized the food market. snacks prime in Colombia.
Betancourt, Alejandro Agudelo Mejía, Ricardo Ramírez Ramírez and Nicolás Eberl Peick then began selling their sauces under the MonteRojo brand, a name that combines the natural character of the products with the spiciness of Colombian flavors. So that customers could taste the sauces, they used chips potatoes, plantains and, later, nachos, mature cheeses or cabanos, all to offer an experience prime. Over time, the numbers, which are the EKG of any business, revealed that the snacks were costing them more than the sauces themselves. In addition, Many of those who tasted them said: ‘The sauce is very good, but I want to have the nachos or the potatoes,’ so the whole business exercise was lost,” Betancourt recalls.
To reduce costs, they developed a recipe for gluten-free and sea salt-free nachos, with the help of one of their suppliers. “And we said: ‘We are no longer going towards sauces, but towards snacksTheir parents and friends advised them not to enter this profession because the risk of bankruptcy was high compared to large historical brands like Papas Margaritas, Superricas, Todo Rico or Naturchip.
But as where there are storms and fears, some find opportunities, they threw themselves into the water. Sales poured in. They started venturing and expanding into other channels and channels. “It made us put our feet on the ground more, think about where we were going and what we wanted,” Betancourt explains. “The answer was to develop Colombian products prime, gourmetwith its own flavors, which allow you to experience a feeling of well-being. And that’s how we continued. The market change was logical, but risky: while the market for the famous “packicos” in Colombia was 3.5 billion pesos in 2016, that for sauces only amounted to 30 billion.
The first products based on nachos and potatoes were followed in 2018 by chips bananas and cassava. And they kept introducing more and more flavors: sweet potato, with sea salt, pepper, BBQ, lemon, lemon-lime and even black pepper. They tried chicharrones, fried corn, cornitos (snacks crunchy corn) and a line of nuts gourmet or caramelized cashews. That same year, they brought the UAU to life! brand, focused on women’s care and healthy living, first with popsicles, then with donuts and cookies.
In 2020, they made their first international sale to the most important chain in Ecuador, a country in which they are increasingly positioned. Today, its products are exported to 15 countries, including the United States, Panama, Paraguay, El Salvador and several Caribbean islands. They have exceeded the figure of 10 million units sold in 2021, they are present in 1,200 supermarkets in Colombia, they have billed 60,000 million pesos in 2024 and their goal is to reach 100,000 million in 2028. They have launched special editions of flavors with Club Colombia, José Cuervo, Alpina and Hatsu.
All founding partners remain in the company, with defined roles: Betancourt is the general manager: Agudelo is the director of Business Marketing; Ramírez, director of Canal Tradicional; and Eberl, the director of foreign trade. “I seek to exercise inspiring leadership, which we all promote from top to bottom, with which the people in our charge feel more than guided, accompanied and supported,” Betancourt responds when asked what type of CEO he is. He emphasizes that for him, leadership is learned, with time, effort and preparation. “We don’t achieve this by saying, but by doing.”
Just as they have many successes, they have also made mistakes that they have learned from because they understand that the market is wiser than anyone else. This happened to them with special potatoes, low in salt, produced for Carulla, which did not receive the expected reception. Since in the consumer world there are no infinite shelves, they collected them and learned, without drama, because at Vector Foods there is a strong culture of innovation, which allows mistakes to happen. “You have the right to jump into the abyss, to take risks, because that is how you will have the advantage over the competition. ring We cannot fight with prices, but with quality and innovation,” says Betancourt, graduated in Administrative Engineering and specialized in Finance at the EIA of Envigado and holds an MBA at Eafit.
The company also has a strong inclusion policy which has developed naturally. 65% of the 178 employees are women, many of whom are heads of household, and they have had and have employees with motor, cognitive, deaf-mute and LBGTI community disabilities. This is not a written policy. “The partners are convinced of connecting the best, whatever their condition and without exercising positive discrimination. »
Vector Foods already has a share of the food market snacks in Colombia, a portion they barely imagined they would have when they started selling sauces. And they’re not going to stop, because the goal is to launch six new products per year. Today, when Betancourt is asked what his friends and family say who advised him not to move forward with the snacks», he concludes with a smile: “They eat our products peacefully and happily. »
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