Family fight takes Biscoitos Globo from the sand to the courts

Famous for producing a typical product of “Carioca gastronomy”, Panificação Mandarino has been operating since the 1960s in a building in the Center without any sign. Or plate. No clue. Anyone who passes through the door only discovers that the Biscoitos Globo factory works there due to the smell of starch and the movement of street vendors who stock up at the address. According to the owners of the company, the goal for such care is to maintain discretion. But behind this low-profile style, there is a complex and controversial legal dispute involving the widow and one of the daughters of João Ponce, one of the company’s four founders, who died in 2015, and the remaining partners. The bias surrounding the administration (and profits, of course) of the brand, which became popular in the sands of Rio de Janeiro and from there became a sarong, bag, t-shirt, and even an object of decoration, gained new chapters in late July. As Ancelmo Gois reported in his column on GLOBO, Roberta Ponce, 53, and her daughter, Gleice, 21, appealed a court decision that ordered the deposit in court of 25% of the profits destined for João. The partners calculated R$ 3 thousand, an amount considered unfair by Roberta and Gleice. In July, the judge of the 2nd Family Court of Barra da Tijuca determined that an investigation should be carried out on the company’s accounts to determine how much the factory is worth and how much it earns per month. BRAND VALUE IN DISPUTE The owners claim that the crisis has wiped out business and that, since João’s death, they have been religiously depositing the amounts due to the heirs – including the other three daughters from the businessman’s first marriage. The money, according to them, would be unavailable for use by the heirs because the inventory process is still going on. The family dispute is based on divergence in the company’s accounting. According to Mariana Zonenschein, the lawyer for Roberta and Gleice, when questioned in court, the partners of the Biscoitos Globo factory would have presented an “unreal” accounting balance. Hence the R$ 3 thousand monthly. According to their calculations, the company would be worth about R$ 1.56 million.

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