Aviação, With More Than R$600m Revenue, Projects 10% Growth in 2026

Laticínios Aviação, known for its orange butter tin, reported annual revenue of more than R$600 million and has set a 10% growth target for 2026. The company recorded increases of roughly 8% in recent years. Its expansion includes partnerships with brands outside the traditional dairy category rather than relying mainly on large advertising campaigns.

Pipó Gourmet has introduced popcorn flavoured with Aviação butter, while Zinho, a producer of garlic bread, has launched a product filled with the company’s butter. Aviação said the collaborations create additional points of contact with consumers and introduce the brand to people who may not previously have known it.

Butter remains the company’s main product. Its portfolio also includes cream cheese, dulce de leche, sliced mozzarella and coffee, which Aviação has sold since the previous decade. In the partnerships, the butter flavour is being used beyond the company’s own product range.

The business began in 1920, when the Gonçalves and Sales families acquired a warehouse in São Paulo and a dairy operation in Passos, in southern Minas Gerais. The name Aviação referred to the era’s new aviation technology, less than two decades after Alberto Santos Dumont’s 14-bis flight in 1906 and the Wright brothers’ Wright Flyer flight in 1903.

More than a century after its creation, the company remains under the control of the founding family. Fernando Alvarenga, a shareholder, is the great-grandson and great-great-grandson of the founders and the son of chief executive Geraldo Alvarenga. “I am the fourth and fifth generation at the same time,” he said in an interview with AgFeed.

Alvarenga said the company’s products combine a long-established quality with strong emotional appeal linked to the brand. “This ends up adding value to other products,” he said. He also said the company was satisfied with its current position and was overcoming its difficulties.