Alex Lucas, the likeable Country Manager of San Miguel South Africa, is getting ready to say goodbye to the country – however, this is not a permanent goodbye and neither will it be the end of his involvement with the Argentinean Group’s operations in South Africa.
He is merely spreading his wings on what he calls the start of a new expedition – similar to the one he undertook nine years ago when he first arrived at the end of the African continent.
Lucas has been appointed as chief operation officer International of the San Miguel Group. In addition to the group’s South African operations, he will now be looking after all the international business outside Argentina, such as Peru, Uruguay and South Africa.
He will be replaced by Andries Du Preez as country manager of South Africa.
Lucas makes no secrecy of the love he has developed for South Africa since arriving in the country in 2009 when San Miguel invested in citrus production in the Eastern Cape’s Sunday’s River Valley.
“In those days I was San Miguel’s sales manager for the Mediterranean region, in charge of the sales and distribution of our single product, namely lemons. I remember being in Milan, laying on a bed at the hotel, when I received an unexpected call from headquarters in Buenos Aires. That call was going to be a game changer for me and family. San Miguel was offering me the opportunity to start up the business in South Africa as a strategic move to complement our strong lemon position with oranges and soft citrus.”
He also admits that he knew very little about South Africa, because so few lemons were exported from South Africa in those days.
“Bear in mind that the exported volume of lemons in 2009 was 8m cartons - today we are reaching 21m cartons with a prospect of reaching 25m or more cartons by 2025. Argentina was by far the largest Southern Hemisphere lemon exporter in the world until South Africa took over the first position in 2017.
“I am also ashamed to admit that apart from the figure of Nelson Mandela, the Springbok rugby team and “the battle in Tucuman” – a rather shameful rugby match between the teams of the two countries – the Big Five and Table Mountain, I did not know much more about this amazing country.
“I was very surprised at how similar Argentinians and South Africans were, despite the limited historical and cultural connection of these two countries in the past. Nevertheless, that experience of making South African friends during my studies in England was perhaps the reason why the idea of moving to South Africa attracted me and my wife so much.”
He came here as ‘Alejandro’ Lucas but amongst the people of the Sunday’s River Valley he soon just became ‘Alex’ – one of them.
Lucas says the aspect he most enjoyed of living in South Africa has been precisely because of the quality of its people, on a personal as much as a professional level.
“I now have the challenge to look at the San Miguel business at a much higher level, as I must look after three countries instead of one; with different cultures and production conditions.” He says the San Miguel Group is continuing to grow and is looking to expand into other countries.
“Last year we acquired the Peruvian fruit company, Agricola Hoja Redonda. This have been a massive jump and the first step into other fruits outside of citrus, namely Avocados and Grapes. We have in total 1,415ha in production, of which Mandarins (W Murcott/Tango) are 678ha, Avocados (Hass) are 401ha and Grapes (IFG varieties) amounts to 336ha.”
On the Uruguayan business side, there is a very clear strategy which was designed and implemented by its country manager Alejandro Buratovich, Lucas explains. “We have 2,300ha planted, but 60 of those plantations are still not at full production.”
He says Uruguay has two clear strategic pillars: a lemon processing pillar aimed to provide our strategic customers with lemon oils and juices and a fresh pillar focused on Mandarin business for the US and Brazilian markets.
One can perhaps state that Alex Lucas now has his feet planted on two continents on both sides of the Atlantic – but that he is now also a true South African at heart, along with his family who settled so easily on the Eastern Cape coast and will perhaps be very sorry to leave.
