Rui Nabeiro chatted with friends and was proud to have started the business with his father by smuggling coffee to Spain. “I even roasted coffee in a frying pan.” But soon, at the age of 17, he had to take over from his father and manage the Torrefacção Camelo family business. In 1961 he founded Delta Cafés, today a group with four thousand employees, more than 20 companies and present in 40 countries.
The man who died yesterday in Hospital da Luz, in Lisbon, at the age of 91, due to respiratory problems, was remembered by all circles of society as a unique businessman, who deserved the highest praise, for his personality, professional career and work what a done.
Funeral ceremonies for Rui Nabeiro will begin this Monday, with a vigil starting at noon at Campo Maior’s main church. The funeral service will take place on Tuesday at noon in the same church, followed by the funeral procession to the municipal cemetery of Campo Maior.
The city council has declared five days of mourning and that of Elvas three days. The group’s employees will also stop for three days in honor of the founder.
With a permanent affable smile, even at first contact, it was as if he had known the person forever, thus generating the empathy necessary for anyone who aspired to succeed in life and be remembered “as a reference”.
“There was no one he refused a job to. When they asked him, no one was out of a job. Sometimes it was the whole family,” recalls Capoulas Santos, deputy former socialist leader and former minister of agriculture, to whom politics and Alentejo strengthened relations with the businessman.
Other friends say that “when he had too many employees, he started a new company to hire them, rather than send them away”. Living next to the factory, in Monte das Argamassas, in Campo Maior, he got up early every day and watched the production, greeting each worker, addressing them by name. “He had an impressive devotion to people,” say those who knew him well.
Precursor Marketing
“What impressed me the most,” says the Alentejo deputy, “was that it created jobs and remained competitive even against a global competitor like Nestlé. It managed to go against all the canons and triumphed”. Where would the secret be? “I think I’ve been so successful in getting people motivated.”
But his attention was not limited to the workers, Capoulas Santos recalls Rui Nabeiro telling him that he organized annual parties, where he welcomed customers from the south, north and the center, selling out the region’s hotel industry on successive weekends.
And during his travels, he made it a point to visit all the “Delta” cafes, in a real strategy that today would be called marketing, to meet his customers, to whom he offered advertising canopies – produced in a company that he had founded for this purpose.
He drank coffee, the flavor of which he helped define himself, and insisted on tasting the coffee mixtures made in the laboratory.
But it was not limited to the distribution of coffee in Portugal and Spain. Portuguese-speaking countries were favorite destinations, even during the colonial war period, where it is still possible today to be surprised by a Delta coffee in the most unexpected places in Angola, Mozambique…
In addition to the PALOP, he followed in the footsteps of emigrants and thus helped establish the Mercado da Saudade, which was later followed by other businessmen.
In the case of East Timor, it made itself available to buy the local coffee production, to help the economy transition to independence, which ultimately fell through as the markets had already been defined, although Rui Nabeiro launched a campaign to defend the territory there , creating the “Timor” Lot, a gesture that President Ramos-Horta remembered yesterday, remembering the businessman as a “good and generous man”.
The business path grew and today the succession is assured, with his grandson Rui Miguel Nabeiro as executive chairman of the group, now a multifaceted structure (see text below).
municipal experience
“He was very active, very attentive and very happy to participate in public affairs. It was intuitive – he only had the 4th grade,” still says the former minister, who met him when Rui Nabeiro was elected president of the Municipal Council of Campo Maior by the Socialist Party, in 1977, remained in office until 1986.
He had already been appointed to the same position before April 25 (1962-1972).
In the local country, the action of the entrepreneur was not limited to the economic aspect. His charitable acts are well known, with an emphasis on the creation of the Alice Nabeiro Educational Center, to meet the extracurricular needs of children.
The reward for their dedication to promoting the development and well-being of the society began to come in different forms and in different fields.
About 12 years ago, he had the rare opportunity, while still alive, to become acquainted with the statue erected in his honor in Campo Maior and to live with it during these years. But evidence of recognition of his legacy has been piling up nationally and internationally.
Around here, Mário Soares, as President of the Republic, in 1996 awarded him the rank of Commander of the Civil Order of Agricultural, Industrial and Commercial Merit – Industrial Class. Later, in 2006, he was again awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Infante D. Henrique.
In Spain he was honored with the insignia of the Commendation of the Order of Isabel the Catholic, in 2009, and the following year he was named Honorary Consul of Spain, with the jurisdiction of Castelo Branco, Portalegre, Évora and Beja.
Universities were not ignorant of his work either. He received two Honoris Causa doctorates, the first in 2012 in political science, awarded by the Lusófona University of Humanities and Technologies; and the second, last year, by the University of Coimbra, at the suggestion of the Faculty of Economics, for its “indisputable professional merit and human qualities that constitute an inspiring reference for the whole of society”.
multiple recognitions
The University of Évora created the Rui Nabeiro Chair in 2009, aimed at promoting research, teaching and scientific dissemination in the field of biodiversity.
There were also congregations that distinguished him. This was the case in Coimbra, where he was awarded the Medal of the City; from Lisbon, with the city’s medal of honor; and Vila Nova de Gaia, where he received the City Key.
The Army also recognized him with the D. Afonso Henriques Medal – Army Merit.
Last year, OnStrategy’s annual RepScore study ranked him “the most relevant leader with the best reputation in Portugal”.
Yesterday the posthumous tributes continued in words, from the highest figures in the nation to political parties from all corners, without missing the tributes from businessmen, mayors and even the major football clubs, or even figures of Culture and Education.
All the words echoed in unison a “thank you”, said in different ways, but which the writer José Luís Peixoto summed up: “Someone very special was lost”.
Source: DN
