Companhia União Fabril

The Companhia União Fabril (CUF) was one of the largest and oldest Portuguese conglomerates from the 1930s to 1974 and later a chemical corporation which was by then a part of Grupo José de Mello founded in 1988.

[1][2] The chemical industry businesses were consolidated in 2018 into a new brand and company called Bondalti which was established within the Grupo José de Mello.

[3][4] The company was founded by Alfredo da Silva in 1871 and managed by his descendants, including José Manuel de Mello, as a family-run business conglomerate.

The company grew and developed as a large conglomerate enforcing a business model with similarities to South Korean chaebols and Japanese keiretsus and zaibatsus.

With its core businesses (cement, chemicals, petrochemicals, agrochemicals, textiles, beer, beverages, metallurgy, naval construction, electrical equipment, oilseeds, insurance, banking, wood pulp, tourism, mining, etc.)

[5] After the Carnation Revolution military coup on April 25, 1974, the fall of the Estado Novo regime that ruled the intercontinental country from 1933 to 1974, and the subsequent Processo Revolucionário em Curso (PREC), CUF entered in collapse.