Sociedad Procesadora de Leche del Sur S.A.

What it is

The predecessor company was incorporated on 30 July 1964 as Dos Álamos S.A.C.I., then merged in 1997 with Prolesur S.A., adopting the full name Sociedad Procesadora de Leche del Sur S.A. Its job was industrial, not retail: Prolesur manufactured dairy ingredients — cheese, butter, powdered milk, whey — which it sold to Soprole, the consumer-facing brand that put yoghurt and milk cartons on Chilean supermarket shelves.

Prolesur is the producer in the south of Chile, with plants in Los Lagos and Osorno. In 2023, Prolesur purchased more than 384 million litres of raw milk, a rise of 16.9% year on year.

That volume makes it one of the largest single milk-collection operations in the country.

Who owns it

On 22 February 2021 an extraordinary shareholders’ meeting approved the merger of Sociedad Procesadora de Leche del Sur S.A. into Soprole Inversiones S.A. (SISA), with SISA acquiring all of Prolesur’s assets and liabilities and Prolesur legally dissolving. The buyer of that combined group was the Peruvian conglomerate Grupo Gloria, whose subsidiary Gloria Foods-JORB S.A. signed a share purchase agreement to acquire the vehicle controlling both Soprole and Prolesur.

The deal is subject to the buyer launching a public tender for all shares not held by Fonterra; at the time, Fonterra held 99.85%, with the remaining 0.15% spread across roughly 600 minority shareholders. Gloria acquired Soprole in a transaction valued at US$640 million, the largest Peruvian investment in Chile in the decade.

Grupo Gloria is a Peruvian conglomerate focused on food across Latin America, founded in 1986 by the brothers Vito and Jorge Rodríguez, headquartered in Lima.

Who runs it

Hugo Covarrubias Lalanne serves as chairman of the board (presidente del directorio) of Soprole Inversiones, the entity that absorbed Prolesur. Covarrubias, a marketing engineer, was first elected to chair the board at the April 2021 shareholders’ meeting.

Day-to-day operations are led by CEO Sebastián Tagle as gerente general, who has highlighted that the transition to Gloria’s ownership revealed the company’s underlying operational and commercial strength.

The board also includes Claudio Rodríguez Huaco — the Rodríguez family heir and Grupo Gloria’s executive director — as well as Susana Jiménez Schuster, Ignacio Benito, and Juan Ignacio Langlois Margozzini as board directors. Jiménez Schuster is a Chilean economist who served as Minister of Energy in President Piñera’s second government from 2018 to 2019.

The money, in plain words

The Prolesur entity no longer files standalone accounts; all figures below reflect the Soprole Inversiones consolidated group, which is Prolesur’s operational home. The most recent audited consolidated financial statements cover the year ended 31 December 2024.

The group’s sales were growing even before the merger; they have continued to rise under Gloria’s ownership.

In 2024 the group collected CLP 817.5 billion in sales (~US$882.7 million) — up 8.6% from CLP 752.6 billion (US$813 mn) in 2023 (our calculation). It kept CLP 46.3 billion (US$50 mn) as net profit (~US$50.0 million), a net profit margin of 5.7% (our calculation) — thin by global food standards, reflecting the capital intensity of raw-milk collection and processing.

For every peso of equity that owners have left in the business, the group earned about 18 centavos back — a return on equity of roughly 18.3% (our calculation), which is respectable for a commodity-adjacent dairy processor.

Total assets stood at CLP 601.9 billion (~US$649.8 million) at year-end 2024, up from CLP 541.3 billion (US$584 mn) a year earlier, with the main growth coming from receivables and property, plant and equipment. Long-term financial liabilities ballooned from CLP 24.5 billion (US$26 mn) to CLP 224.9 billion (US$243 mn) over the year, likely reflecting intercompany financing from the new parent group.

What it is doing now

While national raw-milk reception in Chile fell 4.8% over the past two years, Soprole and its subsidiaries — including Prolesur — grew their milk intake by 19.7%, taking market share from rivals. Combined, Soprole and Prolesur now hold about 27% of Chile’s total raw-milk intake, second only to the cooperative Colún at 30.5%.

Grupo Gloria is actively integrating Prolesur/Soprole into its Latin American platform, identifying common supplier standards and cross-border product launches — for example, exporting Chile’s lactose-free dairy line to Peru, with plans to roll the same format under Pil (Bolivia) and other group brands.

What to watch

• Relisting or squeeze-out: With ~0.15% of SISA still in minority hands and no active market, Gloria could at some point launch a full buyout — or a future IPO of the enlarged Chilean business is not inconceivable.
• Debt load: Long-term financial liabilities grew nearly ninefold in 2024, pointing to substantial intercompany borrowing from Gloria; the interest cost will bear watching as Chilean rates shift.
• Competitive pressure: Nestlé and Watt’s have both seen milk intake fall, partly ceding volume to Prolesur/Soprole — but that dynamic can reverse if competitors raise farm-gate prices.
• Regional integration: Gloria has projected US$500 million in group-wide investment for 2025; how much lands in Chile will determine whether Prolesur’s Osorno and Los Lagos plants are modernised.

This is news, not investment advice.