Have you ever stopped to think about the story of someone who built an empire in retail starting from scratch? That's right, Ilson Mateus Rodrigues is exactly the kind of entrepreneur we rarely see nowadays. He left Serra Pelada in the 80s — when he was trying his luck in gold prospecting — and ended up founding one of the largest supermarket and wholesale groups in the North and Northeast regions.

What draws the most attention in Ilson Mateus Rodrigues's journey isn't just the financial success, but how he made everything happen in regions that most big retailers ignored. Meanwhile, people focused on São Paulo and Rio, he was there in Balsas, Maranhão, opening a simple grocery store that later became Armazém Mateus — and after that, what we now know as Grupo Mateus.

The IPO in 2020 was like a turning point. They raised nearly R$ 4.63 billion on B3, and that was during the pandemic. No one expected it, but Grupo Mateus managed to do it. With that capital, they accelerated expansion, launched MateusCard in partnership with Bradesco, and kept growing. The strategy was simple but effective: not competing in the same fields as the giants, but dominating niches where no one had strength.

The hybrid retail + wholesale model that Ilson Mateus Rodrigues created is brilliant. It serves everything from the average consumer to small merchants, increasing scale and margins at the same time. They also have their own production — like Bumba Meu Pão bakeries, for example — which provides quality control and better margins.

Forbes recognized all of this by listing Ilson Mateus Rodrigues among billionaires with an estimated fortune of around US$ 1.7 billion in 2022. This reflects both the appreciation of GMAT3 shares and the real growth of the business.

What’s interesting for investors is that Grupo Mateus shows how well-structured regional companies can achieve scale and value in Brazil. Of course, there are risks — geographic concentration, pressured margins in retail, sensitivity to middle and lower-class consumption — but the resilience of the model speaks for itself.

Ilson Mateus Rodrigues’s story is a case of entrepreneurship and strategic vision. From a grocery store in the interior of Maranhão to a billion-dollar IPO, it shows how opportunities appear for those who can see beyond obvious markets. If you follow the retail market, it’s worth keeping an eye on this story.