Canto de Minas acquires Matilat and its São Paulo dairy plant
The transaction brought the Catanduva factory under Canto de Minas’s control, adding manufacturing and logistics capacity and increasing its presence in the São Paulo market. The group began managing the facility in 2026 and chose to retain the Matilat brand while integrating its operations into the business. Matilat has operated in the dairy industry for more than five decades. Canto de Minas had also acquired BomQ, a business specialising in premium cheeses. Nascimento told Diário do Comércio that the company continues to assess merger and acquisition opportunities to gain scale in a market contested by large groups. It is considering businesses that could expand production, distribution and its reach in strategic markets. “We need to act so we are not swallowed up,” he said.
Ituiutaba, where Canto de Minas was founded and maintains its headquarters, remains its main operating base, with two factories and distribution infrastructure. In 2021, the company opened its second plant there after investing approximately R$40 million, one of the largest investments in its history. The factory has about 5,000 square metres of built space within a roughly 110,000-square-metre complex in the city’s industrial district, alongside the company’s distribution centre. Designed chiefly to increase output of requeijão and cream cheese, it tripled capacity in those categories. The facility uses equipment and technology from France and Germany, together with automated production systems. At its opening, the company described it as one of Brazil’s most modern requeijão factories.
Alongside the new plant, Canto de Minas announced a further R$5 million to expand fermented dairy and cheese production lines at its first Ituiutaba facility. The expansion increased its capacity to take in milk produced in the surrounding region and generated activity for suppliers and service providers in the dairy supply chain. Manufacturing subsequently spread beyond Ituiutaba: in 2022, the company took over a cheese factory in Ibiá, in the Alto Paranaíba region, previously owned by Laticínio União Total. This became its third industrial unit, increasing cheese-making capacity and bringing the business closer to another important milk-producing area in Minas Gerais. The additions accompanied its strategy of entering new markets and broadening its product range.
Minas Gerais is among the company’s principal markets, particularly the Triângulo Mineiro and Alto Paranaíba regions. Canto de Minas also has a significant presence in Goiás, the Federal District, Pará and Tocantins, as well as markets in north-eastern Brazil, Mato Grosso and Paraná. “The idea is to keep strengthening the regions where we operate and enter areas where we have no presence,” Nascimento told Diário do Comércio. Despite its national ambitions, the company also sees room to expand within Minas Gerais. It is participating in Superminas Food Show 2026 and is seeking, in particular, a larger share of the Belo Horizonte metropolitan market. Nascimento described Greater Belo Horizonte as a substantial consumer market with strong competition from regional brands. The company has been strengthening its commercial organisation there to build closer relationships with retail chains and win customers.
The product range has diversified alongside the industrial expansion. Canto de Minas sells cheeses, yoghurts, requeijão, creams, curdled-milk products and other dairy foods. Counting the different formats, its refrigerated range comprises more than 150 products, according to Nascimento. Part of its strategy focuses on higher-value categories and products associated with changing consumer demand. Its Triplo Zero range offers products with no fat, no added sugar and no lactose. Whey Move targets the market for foods with a higher protein content. These lines form part of the company’s wider effort to diversify its offering as it expands geographically.
The company has also entered the UHT milk market, adding long-life milk to the categories in which it competes for retail sales. Cheese holds a strategic position in its portfolio because of its contribution to revenue and the margins it provides for the manufacturer. The acquisition of premium-cheese specialist BomQ, the Ibiá operation and investment in the Ituiutaba factories are among the company’s moves in cheese production. Its expansion strategy combines the development of the Canto de Minas brand with the integration of businesses and operating infrastructure already established in other markets.
The expansion comes as the dairy industry faces fluctuations in milk prices, raw-material costs and external pressures on margins. Canto de Minas is recording revenue growth in 2026, while production volume remains relatively stable. According to Nascimento, the company plans to expand manufacturing capacity in line with demand developments across individual product lines as it pursues its projected revenue increase next year.
